U.S. Veers Dangerously Close To Consensus On Koran-Burning

It's always a bit nauseating when one sees all the major media outlets giving an extremist ideologue face time, despite a complete lack of credibility, and with mounting evidence that he's truly disturbed. But Pastor Terry Jones, who started a let's-burn-Korans-on-9/11 campaign, seems to have achieved one thing that even President Obama couldn't: A true liberal/conservative consensus.

After Mayor Bloomberg made it abundantly clear yesterday that he thinks Jones is "boneheaded," more politicians came out against Jones today. President Obama appeared on Good Morning America, tried to appeal to the "better angels" of his nature, and hopes that "he understands that what he's proposing to do is completely contrary to our values [as] Americans." The Vatican and Anti-Defamation League agreed with Obama, with ADL Director Abraham Foxman adding, "we should not let bigots defile the memory of the victims of 9/11 with offensive rhetoric and hate speech."

And in that spirit, both Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck spoke out against Jones: "Burning the Koran is like burning the flag or the Bible. You can do it, but whose heart will you change by doing it? You will only harden the hearts of those who could be moved," Beck wrote on his website. Palin echoed his sentiments on her Facebook account: "It will feed the fire of caustic rhetoric and appear as nothing more than mean-spirited religious intolerance. Don’t feed that fire." Well look at that: an actual, across-the-board consensus!

Of course, they couldn't leave it at that—they just had to break the anti-Koran burning reverie, and compare the issue to the controversy lightning rod that is the proposed Ground Zero community center and mosque: "It’s just like the Ground Zero mosque plan. Does this church have the right? Yes. Should they? No. And not because of the potential backlash or violence. Simply because it is wrong," Beck wrote. This was the closest the US has come to a political consensus since the cat fashion shows.

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By Ben Yakas in News on September 9, 2010 1:21 PM

Comments [rss]

John L

Beck, Palin and the rest of them are such hypocrites.

so1337

I'm sorry. But if he doesn't...

Successful troll is successful.

Mordicai

Guys like this make it really easy for the casual, unthinking bigots to get away with it. "We're not BIGOTS, we're not advocating like, burning the Koran! We just think Muslims should be treated like second class citizens is all!"

SFNY

If a bigot's bonfire burns in Florida and the media isn't there to cover it, does it generate any heat?

The media doesn't *have* to report on the actions of any old crackpot crankypants, so let's let this one preach into an abyss of disinterest all alone and unwatched.

JenChungsBaby

If only!!!!!!

Instead you know FOX, CNN and all the others will have helicopters flying overhead to provide live worldwide coverage of the matches being lit. These days any crackpot idiot can become a media sensation just by doing the most stupid or outrageous thing possible.

Guest

Of course, they couldn't leave it at that—they just had to break the anti-Koran burning reverie, and compare the issue to the controversy lightning rod that is the proposed Ground Zero community center and mosque

Maybe because it's exactly the same thing. Each has the right to do what they want to do, but a lot of people don't think they should. You can try to say it's apples and oranges, but when you look at it without bias, it's the same.

dept54321

One issue is about whether or not to build a house of worship. The other issue is about burning books. Not exactly the same thing at all, except in the most abstract constitutional terms.

mocanlagunas

One is an attack, the other is a just "mosque"...

One is stupid, the other has stupid people protesting against it...

If it were a terrorist training camp, then it would be the same.

kevd

Its true. Those 2 things are 100% exactly the same.

Not any aspect of difference what so ever.

Well, there are the same in 2 aspects.

1) Both are legally protected.

2) Lots of people think they shouldn't be done.

in all other ways they are very, very different.

Oh, I found a third way they are 100% exactly the same!

3) Both are being done by guys with white hair.

So it is just like apples and oranges. Apples are like oranges because

1) both are fruit

2) both contain fructose

3) I eat 'em both

By your flawed logic, apples and oranges are now exactly the same. Because they share 2 or more common traits.

BTW. I'm for both Muslim community centers with pools (as long as membership isn't too expensive) and burning the "holy" books of stone and bronze-age superstitious cults. I'm looking at you Torah and Bible! I got the matches. Try me.

Guest

I said those without bias can see them as the same. You obviously have bias. I don't. I've gotten to the point where I don't give a shit about either side of this debate. I care about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. The rest of you can attack me and my flippant remarks all you want to make yourselves feel high and mighty because you believe yourselves to be liberal, open-minded people, but when it boils down to it, you're just as stubborn and closed-minded as the conservatives you purport to hate.

When I was 19, my girlfriend burned a Bible in high school and did not even get suspended or make national news for it. I was brought up a Christian and it did not bother me one bit. Why? Because she had the right to do it and I knew that the supposed sanctity of that text had nothing to do with the cheap paper it was printed on or the fake leather that bound it.

MT

Speaking of cats, what does Andrea Peyser think?

Rocknrope

"Burning the Koran is like burning the flag or the Bible. You can do it, but whose heart will you change by doing it? You will only harden the hearts of those who could be moved,"

I hope planes are dodging all the flying pigs, because I'm actually in full agreement with a statement from Glenn Beck.

corbindallas

Building a community center is not like burning the book. Plus the guys is willing to sell the building for 18 Million. Why cant sarah just buy it ?? Oh yeah she could care less.