DrCameronJackson@gmail.com
General Petraeus denounced the burning of the “holy Koran” March 20, 2011 as hate speech. With due deference to the General’s extraordinary military abilities, he should stick to what he does excellently –engage in war against our enemies.
Bill O’Reilly on Fox News 4-6-2011 said that there are no moderate Muslims condemning the violence in the Middle East related to the burning of the Koran. O’Reilly should check out physician Dr. Jasser who founded American Islamic Fourn for Democracy which is a moderate voice opposed to sharia law and supportive of state/ mosque separation. Why not ask Dr. Jasser on to explain his views on the radicalization of Islamic youth in America?
“As deadly demonstrations spread across Afghanistan, American Muslim leaders condemned the violence as well as the Quran-burning by a fundamentalist Christian minister in Florida whose actions were cited as provocation for the killings.
By Allauddin Khan, AP
Protesters carry a wounded colleague during a demonstration to condemn the burning of a copy of the Muslim holy book by a Florida pastor in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Saturday.
www.freefile.irs.gov
“Clearly the Islamist agenda is to use any tidbit of information out of the West to try to paint America and the West as anti-Islam and anti-Muslim,” said M. Zuhdi Jasser, president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
He said the killings over the weekend in Mazar-i-Sharif and Kandahar were the result of extremist leaders using the burning of a Quran last month in Gainesville, Fla., as an excuse for violence.REACTION: Fla. pastor denies responsibility for Afghan killings
FAITH & REASON: CNN won’t air ‘hateful’ interview with pastor who burned Quran
Terry Jones, 59, who runs the Dove World Outreach Center, held a mock “trial” of the Muslim holy book and burned a copy on March 20. He had threatened to do so last fall, on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but backed down.
His actions last month gained little initial notice in the USA until the violence erupted Friday. Thousands of demonstrators in Mazar-i-Sharif overran a United Nations compound, killing seven. On Saturday, nine people were killed when hundreds marched in Kandahar, attacking cars and businesses and confronting security forces.
Demonstrations continued Sunday in Jalalabad, and a police officer was killed in a second day of violence in Kandahar, the Associated Press reported.
Jones did not return phone calls seeking comment. One of his group’s websites, StandupAmerica.org, posted a statement by Fran Ingram responding to what she said were calls to the church suggesting “you have the blood of the U.N. workers on your hands.”
“The teaching of the Koran is to be blamed. The leaders of Islam who teach the violence and hatred it contains have blood on their hands,” she wrote. “Free speech. We still have that in America.”
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Sunday that his Muslim advocacy group tried to ignore Jones because he has a tiny following and is not representative of mainstream American thought. “We believe he’s just in the mode of pure publicity seeking,” Hooper said of Jones. “We’ve purposely downplayed it as much as possible.”
Hooper denounced the violence as “a completely inappropriate reaction” to the Florida preacher.
“Everybody has freedom of speech. In this case, even freedom to do stupid and reprehensible things. But everybody also has the responsibility to act in a way that doesn’t harm others or doesn’t lead to the harm of others,” Hooper said.
