Main Idea: Terry Jones, the pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has announced his plans to burn Qurans in protest of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However the U.S. military is strongly against such actions, warning that burning the sacred book of Islam would cause serious problems for American troops in Afghanistan. According to General David Petraeus, it burning the Quran “could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort in Afghanistan.” Jones knows that the action is offensive, but is trying to get a message across to the radical element of Islam, not the moderate Muslim who is welcomed in the United States, that he must stand against Islam because it teaches that Jesus is not the son of God, and leads people to hell. Plemon el-Amin, the imam of a mosque located in Atlanta, Georgia, disagrees with Jones saying that if Jones had ever read the Quran, he would know that “he’s going to burn a book that has some of the most beautiful passages about Christ Jesus throughout, as well as Moses, Abraham, and all of the prophets he reads about and says he follows in the bible.
Conclusion: This plan, if followed through with, could lead to serious repercussions for America, by angering many Islamic groups around the world, with a protest occurring outside the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, to show dislike of the planned Quran burning. Terry Jones will have to decide soon whether to follow through with such an outspoken act of anti-Islam, and if the message he is trying to send is worth risking the lives and well-being of the many troops stationed in Afghanistan.
Opinion: I believe that this is not just an act to promote a faith that believes in Jesus as the savior, but as a singular targeting of Islam. If Jones really believed that he was considering burning the Quran because Muslims don’t believe in Jesus Christ as the son of God, then he would have to be fair and go after Judaism as well, seeing as one of Judaism’s main principles is that Jesus is not the Messiah, and that he has yet to appear. But yet we do not see any planned Torah burnings. This burning is fueled by more than just belief in Jesus, but by hate, fear, and ignorance of Americans, and it’s time the United States opened its eyes to see that you can’t blame the entire faith of Islam for the attacks of 9/11, and that it’s time to move on and accept that what happened on that day is not to be blamed on every single Muslim and their faith.
I think that Terry Jones is showing the world the worst side of America. Here in the US, we have a tendency to find someone to fear, hate, and blame all of our problems on. First it was African-Americans, then homosexuals, and now Muslims. This is a horrible, hideous image to project to the world. I think that Jones does not fully understand that his act will be seen by the world not just as the attitude of one small group, but as the attitude of the whole nation. By his foolish action, he is lowering the world's opinion of every single one of us.
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