When Books Burn...

I'm sure ya'll have heard about the certifiable (as in, insane) pastor in Florida that is planning on burning Korans on 9/11.

A fine example of asshattery

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The government turned up the pressure Tuesday on the head of a small Florida church who plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11, warning him that doing so could endanger U.S. troops and Americans everywhere.

But the Rev. Terry Jones insisted he would go ahead with his plans, despite criticism from the top U.S. general in Afghanistan, the White House and the State Department, as well as a host of religious leaders.

Jones, who is known for posting signs proclaiming that Islam is the devil's religion, says the Constitution gives him the right to publicly set fire to the book that Muslims consider the word of God...

First of all, hiding behind the mantra that "the Constitution lets me do it" is a cowardly act. It's in some ways like blaming the devil because you cheated on your spouse. Just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. One could go and call random black people on the street terrible names, it's a constitutionally protected right after all, but there are consequences. They'd probably get the shit beat out of them, and would anyone be surprised? I think not. So Mr. Asshat here can burn the Koran and piss off a bunch of fundamentalist Muslims. The only problem is, it won't be him getting the beating. It will be some poor bloke, probably some 19 year old kid who enlisted in the military half a world away from home who gets the shit beat out of him because Mr. Asshat is well, an asshat.

We should be outraged that he burns any book at all. Or that anyone burns any book, be it a Bible or Harry Potter. Why you ask? Because this type of sentiment leads to hatred of other human beings. First they burn books, next they burn people. It's happened before, plenty of times. If we're not careful, it can and will happen again. Most of the people of Nazi Germany probably didn't realize the path their country was headed down in 1933 when they vilified Jews and burned Torahs and Synagogues. What path are we on? Vilifying Muslims and burning Korans? The next step will be genocide if no one puts a stop to this crap.