Burning Passions
by Lance Thompson
There has been much controversy over the Dove World Outreach Center’s Pastor Terry Jones and his plan to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks. The usual free speech advocates who defend the right of rabid anti-papists to display crucifixes in urine and call it art have been notably absent from this discussion, except to denounce the pastor’s plans as inflammatory and insensitive.
While the pastor has the right to burn anything he owns, as do his parishioners, provided they abide by local pollution laws, burning books is a disturbing trend. There are many books in my life I would have liked to burn, many of them mathematics texts. But no matter how much I disliked a book, I never resorted to the torch. Better to donate an unwanted volume to a library or Goodwill where it might find an appreciative reader.
I don’t advocate burning at all. It seems indiscriminate, destructive, and prone to creating collateral damage. Once started, fires are very hard to control.
However, if a hypothetical fire were to ignite, there are more appropriate places and more volatile fuels. Take for example the Dar-al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia. This is the mosque attended by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hasan. This is the mosque whose former imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, introduced Muslim worshippers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Hani Hanjour to Eya al-Rababah, who secured for them an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, and was later deported for falsifying drivers licenses. This is the mosque where al-Hazmi and Hanjour met Khalid al-Mihdhar–three of the five highjackers who flew American Airlines Flight 77 and its innocent passengers and crew into the Pentagon on September 11th. This is mosque attended by Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, currently serving a 30-year term for planning the assassination of President Bush. This is the mosque that Steven Emerson, of the Investigative Project on Terrorism calls “one of the most radical mosques in the United States.” This is the mosque the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, a database operated by the U. S. Customs Office, called “a front for Hamas operatives” in 2002. In 2007, TECS found that Dar-al-Hijrah “has been linked to numerous individuals linked to terrorism financing.” Forget burning Korans. Let’s have a bonfire at Dar-al-Hijrah.
Onto that bonfire, let’s add the hazardous written and unwritten rules of political correctness. These rules prevent media outlets from calling Feiz Muhammad a radical Islamic imam after he advocated the beheading of Dutch politician Geert Wilders. Instead, a FoxNews story referred to Muhammad, who was born in Sydney, Australia, as a “radical Australian cleric.” These same rules prevented the United States Army from investigating Fort Hood murderer Major Nidal Malik Hasan, even after the Muslim psychiatrist had expressed sympathy for our terrorist enemies and disdain for the United States, a nation he had sworn to defend. These same rules allow hundreds of Muslim worshippers to spill into the streets of New York City to kneel, pray, and snarl traffic for blocks around without being arrested, dispersed, or even cited for jaywalking. More fuel for the fire.
Don’t add the Koran to the flames. But those who use the Koran to encourage, justify and commit the murders of thousands of innocent people should feel the heat. Confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, co-conspirator Ramzi Binalshibh, and Fort Hood murderer Hasan would make suitable contributions to the conflagration. Throw in enemy combatants who wear no uniform, claim no nation as home, and wage war without quarter on soldiers and civilians alike–terrorists, pirates, and traitors. They have earned no kinder fate.
Pastor Jones has ignited controversy with his statements, and whether or not there are real flames or just lots of hot air remains to be seen. But there is a growing fire in the hearts of Americans who feel they’ve been pushed too far, endured too much, and suffered too long. Every new terrorist act or plot, every new dismissal of charges against an enemy, every new concession to radical Islam stokes that fire. Once started, fires are very hard to control.
Pastor Jones has ignited controversy with his statements, and whether or not there are real flames or just lots of hot air remains to be seen. But there is a growing fire in the hearts of Americans who feel they’ve been pushed too far, endured too much, and suffered too long. Every new terrorist act or plot, every new dismissal of charges against an enemy, every new concession to radical Islam stokes that fire. Once started, fires are very hard to control.
