On April 9, 2011, a 24-year-old Muslim man, Akhtar Hussain, tore the Bible apart outside a Catholic Church in Pakistan, in order to avenge extremist American pastor Terry Jones' desecration of the Koran outside his parish in Florida last month.
Hussain was arrested for this spiteful sacrilegious act and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Jones was not arrested for burning the Koran last month. Apparently, US prosecutors have no plans of arresting him for this hateful action.
It is time for the US government to establish a law similar to Pakistan's, which would result in a long prison term for anyone who desecrates a Koran or other holy book in America. Such a law would discourage this kind of hateful activity in the US.
Also, eight United Nations staff members were killed in Afghanistan last week, in what the killers say was a retaliation for Jones' desecration of the Koran. Jones, on the other hand, said he was not responsible for these murders, which he claimed were Islamic terrorist acts.
Although Jones claims that he was not responsible for these murders, they probably never would have occurred, if he had not desecrated the Koran. Nor would the desecration of the Bible in Pakistan have occurred.
These two retaliatory incidents may be just the beginning of Islamic terrorist acts. More Islamic violence against Christians may ensue in the near future, due to the anger that Jones' action has provoked in Muslims.
Jones -- bold, arrogant, and heartless that he is -- has already announced that he plans to lead a new anti-Islam rally on April 22 in Dearborn, Michigan, outside the largest mosque in the United States.
The United States government needs to prevent this rally from occurring -- by denying Jones a permit to hold it -- because of the violence that may result from it. If it is allowed to take place, such a rally will most likely lead to injuries -- perhaps even death -- of innocent people.
It is difficult to accept the fact that Jones is a Christian pastor, because of his obsessive hatred of Muslims and the Koran. Christ's teachings make it very clear that human beings must love their brothers, including those of a different faith.
The fact is that Jones enjoys being the center of attention. His self-worship led to his removal as a pastor of a church in Cologne, Germany -- a position he held before his current position as pastor at a church in Gainesville, Florida.
Consequently, Jones' egoism has resulted in his defiance of one of Christ's most important attributes; namely, to have a genuine love for one's fellow man -- even for one's enemy.
Indeed, his shameless defiance of Christ's teachings -- which can be compared to Judas' betrayal of Christ -- may well lead to Jones' road to ruin.
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Sir, I respectfully disagree with your analysis. If we had blasphemy laws, there would be huge potential for abuse of them:
ReplyDelete--Sending someone to prison for desecrating Mein Kampf or Das Kapital, because someone else considers one of those works holy.
--Sending someone to prison for desecrating a book advocating satanism or witchcraft.
--Punishing someone for merely discarding a religious book that was given to him or her.
I don't particularly desire to defend Terry Jones's actions. It appears that he broke his word and that he also did something that was not wise. However, are we willing to give up our religious freedom in order to prevent someone from destroying a Bible or a Koran? If the Bible is true, the Koran is lies. If the Koran is true, the Bible is lies. (My conviction is that the Bible is true.) Do we want our government imprisoning people for trying to stamp out lies?