Terry Jones' 'Burn a Quran Day' Met with Outrage

by Jordan Yerman | September 6, 2010 at 01:17 pm

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Fringe Preacher Terry Jones: 'Burn a Quran Day on September 11'

Christian Fundamentalist preacher Terry Jones announced "Burn a Quran Day" at his Gainesville, Flordia compound on September 11. His speeches have sparked outrage both in the USA and in Afghanistan, with demonstrations in the streets of Kabul. Terry Jones' Dove World Outreach Center is a fringe church with 50 members.

Some backlash to Terry Jones' "Burn a Quran Day" has come from the US military itself. General David Petraeus said, "It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort", saying that rhetoric like Jones' just plays into the hands of the Taliban.

"It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

Petraeus has a point: Real-life video footage of Americans burning the Quran on US soil would make Americans look like the Taliban.

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timer (not verified)

at 15:41 on September 6th, 2010

The Muslims are living happily in the deserts. WTF are the Americans doing in Afghanistan? Just leave them alone!!! America is a land of the Bibles and WTF are the Korans doing in the USA?Can you find a copy of Bible in Mecca?Let the Muslims and Korans live in the deserts. Any Koran found in the USA must be burnt! The Koran is poisonous to a human's mind!

realist1 (not verified)

at 17:35 on September 6th, 2010

Are you serious? The Koran is no more poisonous to the human mind than the Bible or any other religious text available to be read or studied. Just because you are ignorant to believe that someone from the Muslim faith should not live in any other country is absurd and nothing short of the bias and close minded attitudes and opinions that set off the Christian Crusades.

jt11 (not verified)

at 06:56 on September 7th, 2010

"realist", you are exceedingly ignorant to equate the words of the Koran to those of the bible. You need a history lesson: The bible was written over a period of 1400 to 1800 years, consisting of 66 books written by many authors over many centuries. The Koran was written in the last 25 years or so of Muhammad's life, and the contents therein came exclusively from the mind of Muhammad. You see, to put it the most simple terms possible, the bible has evolved partially over the ages to reflect a dynamic evolving reality from many perspectives; on the other hand, the Koran states its words were given to Muhammed himself from God, so the Koran can never evolve and only comes from the mind of one person. It is blasphemous and punishable by death to change the contents of the Koran, especially those "unpalatable" aspects. So, true Muslims live the way Arabs did 1400 years ago. Many aspects of Islam are basically incompatible with modernity, and things will only worsen as civilization evolves and the Koran continues to remain static, particularly since Muslim birthrates are relatively high all over the world.

Potrayers (not verified)

at 11:59 on September 12th, 2010

remain static???have u ever read it??? if u haven't i strongly suggest u to read it because Koran changed my whole forever and solved many confusion had occur in the Bible..trust me..u will find peace after reading it :)

leonbakhan (not verified)

at 08:37 on September 13th, 2010

I respect all faiths and I believe that by desecrating the religious books will lead to a greater void and disparity among the people of different groups.I am a Muslim and Quran is a pious book as is Bible to me. Nowhere has a Muslim desecrated Bible even being at war with Christians.And Mr.jt Quran does not need to evolve. It will fit in any era even thousand years from now on.Those "Unpalatable Aspects" of Quran which you mention may be not to your liking but they are the guide lines which I and many of my faith respect and keep me away from many wrongs and vices of your world. And for not being like you does not mean that you label me to be a 1400 year oldie! I would say that you have very little knowledge of the things around you.

retina (not verified)

at 08:01 on September 7th, 2010

Dude are you aware that Bible has 50k errors?have u read ur bible any time?...Can you produce a single verse like the Holy Quran....i can bet none of the human can do that.Allah ho Akbar

1960Aussie (not verified)

at 00:21 on September 8th, 2010

You need to check your history on the crusades, they started 300 years after the muslims started their rampage, after 300 years the christians had had enough and decided it was time to fight back.

Interlocutor (not verified)

at 03:41 on September 8th, 2010

"The Koran is no more poisonous to the human mind than the Bible or any other religious text available to be read or studied." Spoken like someone who has never read either! The Bible, and especially the New Testament, has much to commend it. Can't get much better than "love your neighbor" and the golden rule and "love is patient, love is kind". The Koran is a very pale shadow of the Bible. You will find NOTHING about loving your neighbor or being kind to strangers there. You will find endless repetitions of "obey Mohammed or go to a burning hell" if that's more your cup o tea! What I find rather humorous about this article is how "journalists" always describe a loony pastor's church as a "compound". Branch Davidians -- they had a "compound". Heaven's Gate -- they had a "compound". This guy has a warehouse where he sells furniture on Ebay and a church where he leads perhaps as many as 50 people. The property is surrounded by tennis courts, swimming pools and normal suburbia. Molehill has handily been made into mountain before our very eyes!

lolyouranidiot (not verified)

at 19:30 on September 10th, 2010

"The Koran is a very pale shadow of the Bible. You will find NOTHING about loving your neighbor or being kind to strangers there""Spoken like someone who has never read either!"haha.i rest my case.

Muhammad Hasham (not verified)

at 06:10 on September 11th, 2010

I have equal respect for your religion as i have for mine. However, I'd respectfully disagree with your comments. Quran is not a "pale shadow" of bible, and more than 300 times, it ORDERS (not just recommends) to be kind to people (including strangers).As for the neighbor rights, it is said that "He is not a Muslim who eats till his stomach is filled, and his neighbor sleeps with an empty stomach".I haven't gotten the chance to personally read bible, so I can't comment on what Christianity says about human rights. I, however, sincerely invite you to read english translation of Holy Quran, with a neutral mind.Thanks!

wase (not verified)

at 19:51 on September 6th, 2010

if someone burn quran he will burn in hell definately.

Ally Mccook (not verified)

at 04:24 on September 8th, 2010

I would have NO problem burning the Koran.....These radicals had NO problem killing thousands of innocent people and taking down the World trade towers, the pentagon, many jumbo jets with hundreds of innocent people on them. I would bet I would NOT be going to hell if I burned a koran. Knock yerself out terry .. burn baby burn

DEVONECO (not verified)

at 06:07 on September 8th, 2010

Burning of Religious Books is nothing new - at least not in the Middle East. In 2008 Jews in Israel burned hundreds of Bibles they had forcefully collected from Christians and Messianic Jews in Or-Yehuda a city near Tel Aviv - and nothing happened. Christians are being harassed frequently in Israel - check the following websites : www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvnrBU4vaGY&feature=related www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MgGtIWJoPc www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4dPskzlqZ4&feature=related ........ and no one in USA or the rest of the Western world reacted or protested. So what................ ? Keep on burning each other's religious books!

LEEDA (not verified)

at 20:38 on September 8th, 2010

R U FOR REAL U AMERICANS ARE SO DUMB UTHERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TERROSIT IT WAS UR OWN COUNTRY IT CALEED CIA USTUPID RETARD GO CHECK UR HIISTORY U THINK IF U BURN A KOPRAN NO 1 GUNNA DO ANYTHING UR RIGHT BECAUSE GOD WILL PUNISH USS ALL FOR SAYING THIS STUFFU BURN A KORAN AND SEE WAT HAPPENS

Jonathan1 (not verified)

at 15:46 on September 9th, 2010

if you wanna blame muslims for 9/11, I will blame christians for the crusades, the KKK, slavery (in the US), not stopping the holocaust, colonialism in latinamerica and africa and the burning of the witches.

one true ummah (not verified)

at 14:04 on September 10th, 2010

you people are all talk and no action. call islam what u want. how many iraqis are killed by americans everyday? more than those who died in the twin towers. what about afghanistan, and now youre trying to move onto iran. is there any islamic country that invades a non muslim country. NO, so get your facts right. there are over 1.5 billion muslims in the world about 20 have gone extreme. its the media critisizing and not investigating. why when a non muslim does something its allways "mentally ill". for every one christian that goes to church theres a ten fold of muslims going mosque. u dont acctually know much of 9/11 there wer 2 planes, why is no one commenting on the 2nd one, suspicious eh? if islam is radical, opressing and extreme and there is a lot of critisizm, why is islam the worlds fastest growing religion? Eid mubarak muslim brothers and sisters hope u had a nice day. let them try to burn the quran and theyll see the consequence Allah will protect his words

embarassing for you (not verified)

at 19:36 on September 10th, 2010

if it's not too much to ask, 'Ally Mccook' if you did any research at all, you would know that George Bush was feeding you bullshit throughout the entire time of attacks.Nothing adds up. We're in a educated society now buddy, use your resources. Learn the history, learn the facts. You are so blindly fooled by media portrayal that you actually have no idea what is going on around you. Please do everyone a favour, educate thy ignorant self, and save yourself the embarassment

get an education (not verified)

at 22:02 on November 4th, 2010

Ally Mccook To think that Americans' believe they are superior to others is saddening when people like you don't even have an education. You believe in the media and what your politicians feed you. Are you even aware of the thousands of people killed in the Middle East on a regular basis? You cannot even compare numbers. I'd also like to know what you believe of the CIA, haha. So learn the facts and please do find that brain of yours.

Paul Q (not verified)

at 20:06 on September 6th, 2010

the ignorance and overall stupidity in what you said is of gigantic proportions.i'm sorry to say that there is not enough deodorant for your comment.

AlexRG (not verified)

at 20:45 on September 6th, 2010

Jesus would have raged against people like you. He never spoke against other religions around, organized political movements to show his movement was better or anything of the sort this group in Florida is doing regarding this, he rather spoke against those who used his name to judge. Repent from being a modern day Pharisee or simply go with the whole thing and deny Christ instead of using his name vainly and becoming a false testimony. Maybe your heart isn't really trying to go against Christ, but if so, open your ears to him, welcome wisdom and instruction, and start being Christ-like. We were sent to love and minister to the muslims not to show them we are better or that we can be like the worse of them. Let the Koran be in America and, after all those who are Christ's wont be misled, let the Bible be in Afghanistan too. Even Luther welcomed having the Quoran in Germany. I am not telling you to embrace it, but don;t do things Christ wouldn't do. I hope God finds true humility in you and a desire to really listen to his voice instead of defending your ideals/country/religion while rejecting the Sermon of the Mount

Mahluk Kacak berskala Rikter 9.0 (not verified)

at 21:29 on September 6th, 2010

I agree.. :)

Tyra (not verified)

at 11:54 on September 7th, 2010

thank youim a muslim and you gave a very human responseif only everyone in the world had an attitude like you..the world wud be peacefull

vs (not verified)

at 13:51 on September 7th, 2010

This is eloquent and exactly what I feel. Send it to Jones!

QayrHodan (not verified)

at 03:07 on September 8th, 2010

Well said, I agree. Everyone should recpect other people's believes. Medievil Times when Christains and Muslims were at war and just got tried of it. The Peace agreement back then was, "keep your faith, I will keep mine. Dont interfear mine, and I wont interfear yours." And so on. That was a fair agreement, now burning the Quran'The Holy Quran., isnt that crossing bounaries, that's just to far.

Abdullah qahtani (not verified)

at 02:08 on September 7th, 2010

read the Quran it is words of GOD (Allah). It mention the story of jesus. its one chapter name is Mariam(marry). We (muslium) love to jesus, marry and all prophet of GOD. Muslium never burn the bible in the history. Muslium never desrepect to Jesus. You are doing evil act and remember GOD punishment is tough and forever.

PFC Walker (not verified)

at 06:24 on September 7th, 2010

To all muslims of the Islamic faith, I apologize to you on behalf of the United States Army.. We are not bad people, but just like any other country there are many idiots born into our population. I spent a year overseas in Iraq and seen the actions of extremist and the normal population of the Islamic community. What I found was a rash stereotype of the Muslim community being put into a toxic form of words by people just like this Terry, who is supposed to be a person of higher morals as a pastor. Instead he endangers the progress we have made with our fellow humans overseas. While deployed for a year never once was there an rude local national. They were very mannerly and civilized just like the american people. However we condemn them for bring different is that not what so many soldiers have fought and died for was our right to be different why would we deprive someone the same freedom? I feel that this morons actions will not only poorly represent our country but for the very values we fought and died for. I'm sorry for the actions of a few chosen Americans who refuse to accept the freedom of religion and choose to slander our name as a country of freedom.

thnx.. (not verified)

at 07:32 on September 7th, 2010

don't worry muslims know that this bigot is the extremist of christianity.. and just like any Muslim extremist, they should be viewed as an outlaw of the norm! thnx for ur comment, it means a lot to every muslim!

STOP THIS (not verified)

at 12:04 on September 7th, 2010

thank you PFC Walke...Finally a guy with sensethe world is croupt including the government and media of every state. I am a Muslim and i assure you islam is a religion of peace and love. its very sad how it is portrayed and all those dumb and blind people choose to believe what they see. Yes there are a group of so called "extremist muslims" out there strapping themselves with bombs,,,however if anyone bothered looking into the actual religion you will be surprised to see that such actions are actually forbidden in the religion.This burn the quran day is only going to spark more anger and hatred because the quran is an important book to every muslim...

QayrHodan (not verified)

at 03:12 on September 8th, 2010

Thank You. I wish Everyone was like you, your way of thinking

Ally Mccook (not verified)

at 04:32 on September 8th, 2010

Dont you dare apologize on behalf of ME!!!.....Are all Muslims that stupid to think that one man with 50 members are representing all americans?. I think NOT.why has everyone forgotten about the orders/plan to take down as many americans as they can in the name of Allah?? No one seems to be condemming them!! And it is Still happening on a regular basis even against fellow Muslins....