No, I get it too.
I think this was a publicity stunt. It’s hard to think of a way to get more international attention than this stunt. This is a dream come true for a Pastor of a tiny church who has an agenda.
But this also bothers me in another way. In fact in a couple of ways.
- This pastor has the unequivocal right to burn a Koran, it is his First Amendment right. Whether he decides to do so or not remains to be seen, but virtually no one argues that he has the right to do so, and anyone who would suggest so would be legally incorrect. What is being questioned is the propriety of doing so. Interestingly, a similar argument is being made regarding the Ground Zero Mosque. It is fascinating to see that those that vociferously oppose the Pastor’s plan to burn Korans will switch to a different side of the argument when the subject is the Ground Zero Mosque. That’s hypocrisy pure and simple.
- We have been treated to various factions preaching to us about “tolerance” on both these matters. Interestingly, the folks that most often preach “tolerance” are the same people that call a Crucifix in a bucket of urine “art” and expect the rest of us to be “tolerant” of such blasphemy. Well I have news for them ~ what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Either there is tolerance or there is not. Either there is repect for religious sensibilities or there’s not. But to expect us to agree to one form of tolerance for Muslims and another form of tolerance for the rest of us smacks of “dhimmitude” to me. We are not 2nd class citizens in a Muslim country, so those that want the rest of us to be respectful of Muslim sensibilities need to start showing the same respect to other faiths. Otherwise, they should hush and stop making this argument because they have outed themselves as hypocrits.
Hypocrisy is very annoying. Some consistency needs to be arrived at here. Anything else is intellectually dishonest. Being (or at least pretending to be) “intellectual” is very important to certain segments of society, so no doubt such persons will seek intellectual honesty, right? Well this is one way. Be fair and even-handed when preaching right v. propriety or on any matter of “tolerance”. To do otherwise makes a mockery of any intellectual position.