To burn or not to burn: Sep 11th marked as Qur'an day?

"Minister" Terry Jones, a pastor of the Evangelical Christian church in Gainesville, Florida, wants to burn copies of the Qur'an on September 11th 2001 in hopes of getting rid of Islam. Why?

To say burning the Qur'an will get rid of islam is like saying burning every dictionary will get rid of the English language - common sense is key here (anger and hate usually do not co-exist with intelligence). One and a half billion people out of 6 billion+ people in the world are Muslim, therefore one in every six people cannot be removed by burning the books they read. Over half the world are members of a faith group and the majority of the world's population are decent, intelligent, rational humans, give or take a few Floridians. The horrible events in New York on September 11th affected everyone including Muslims.

The pastor's reasoning to start a fire can be summed as a simple equation: 
bad people destroyed iconic buildings + Islam was mentioned somewhere = burn everything with Arabic.
ERGO
bad people arrested for child pornography + ugly mustaches + oppressive church = lock up every man in power.

Doesn't really make sense does it. And what does that tell you? That stupid people can exist everywhere. Giving them a platform to amplify their stupidity only rubs off onto the rest of us.

Islam does not condone any violent act, it actually teaches against it. The Qur'an explicitly informs people the value of life is so important that 'killing one person is like killing all of humanity and saving one is like saving all of humanity' (Qur'an 5:32). Even those verses that report about 'killing them where you find them' (Qur'an, 2:190-193) are contextual to a battle in Islamic history. Read the succeeding verses to understand it fully: 'if they cease, Allah is forgiving... then there is to be no aggression...'. Doesn't that sound scary?

It's so easy to hate what we do not understand, fear even. Much easier than being open minded and taking the time to educate ourselves. Also keep in mind that good news don't make for good media, that we are giving our brain space for this idiotic burning festival shows how we prioritize our attention. The Pakistan floods and Haiti earthquakes have been swiped off our screens.

President Obama has warned that actions like this can hinder efforts in uniting America as a  country as well as putting soldiers over seas in danger. Showing war victims a broadcast of a white American with 'Islam is of the Devil' on his t-shirt, they are not going to throw flower petals at the armies. Yet this does not bother the patriotic Terry Jones in the least.

"Before Jones could say As-salamu alaykum, he was being condemned by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder and pretty much anyone else you could care to mention. Even the Reverend Franklin Graham said he was out of order" [Telegraph].

Colbert I. King of The Washington Post suggests "The Rev. Terry Jones may wish to consider [repairing] to a quiet place, sitting down with his Holy Bible, and reacquainting himself with the idea of redeeming love for sinful man and Biblical teachings about how people should serve God and each other. About the last thing the world needs, especially U.S. armed forces on the battlefield, is an out-of-control Christian soldier marching off to war against a religion he doesn't share. Especially at a time in the world when tolerance, understanding, charity and love are already in such short supply."

By all means, Terry Jones can walk around with his infamous record, his lighter and his Qur'an all he wants (Qur'an publicity we like!) He is media hungry and will not accomplish what he has set out to do. Burn the Qur'an, not burn the Qur'an, postpone after a meeting with an Imam, oh wait, burn it after it stops raining... We do not care. It will not affect the Muslim faith, remove evil in people or make the world Islam-free and American. It will however prove that ignorance and hatred only breeds more ignorance and hatred. It will help in destroying values of the American people and anger a lot of people that are beginning to really like America. They have a really cool President.

What I would suggest to Pastor Terry is to open the Qur'an he's holding and give it a read. If he feels like torching the pages he can get an English translation. It is silly to hate/like something based on what you see and hear in the media. We all know the media is not Absolute Truth. I would introduce Terry Jones to Muslim Americans, show him how revered Jesus is, or make him eat halal Muslim food - that will surely convert him. And in the end if he can't bear to see Islam flourish - tough. That lies in God's power. He will have to abide by the law, treat people fairly (did we mention his child porno stash?) and follow his own religious guidelines without intruding on others. Plus, the environmental agencies are going to be on him for carbon monoxide pollution like a flea to a dog.

Ghandi said it best when he instructed, "Be the change you wish to see in the world".

People use to throw garbage at the Prophet Muhammed ﷺ and called him a liar, a fake. They defecated in the mosque but he never acted out, he ignored their actions or took them aside and talked to them respectfully as narrated in many hadiths. If all else did not work, God said 'let it go - I'll deal with them'. So let us mimic these actions instead.

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