Park 51 - 4 - a worry point

I disapprove of Florida Pastor Jones’s plan to burn the Quran on 9-11 (or any other day), because it will incite religious strife. Also, as I said here earlier (8-08 and 8-18) I think that the Muslims not only have the right to build the Park 51 project, but that I think that it would be a good thing. That is based on my belief that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are as peace loving as the rest of us in the US.

However, that doesn’t mean that the overwhelming majority of Muslims are as committed to freedom of speech and religion as the rest of us in the US. I would like to look a little bit beyond the immediate question. What is the threatened response to Jones’s plan? There are dire warnings about the loss of life that will follow his actions. If we remember the response to the Danish cartoons which included considerable loss of life, then we have to take these threats seriously. That is at least part of the reason why we make our pleas to pastor Jones to stifle. But I think that this entitles us to ask another question. By doing this are we carving out a special arrangement for Islam? Christians (for example) have to endure insults to their religion - piss-Christ and elephant dung on Madonna - for two examples. Are we saying, in response to threats of violence, that we will not tolerate insults to Islam? ABC had an Imam on who said that this (Jones’s proposed action) was not freedom of speech it was crying fire in a theater. If insulting one religion is like crying fire in a crowded theater, then insulting any religion is like crying fire in a crowded theater. Unless there is something special about that one religion and if that is the case, then what is it?