On September 11th, 2010, America as a nation will unfortunately be taken to a new low, and this phase of the march to the bottom will be led by a Pastor Terry Jones. Pastor Jones has organized what he calls, “International Burn a Qur’an Day.” The Qur’an, which is to Muslims what The Bible is to Christians, will be burned publicly, and videos of the burning broadcast to the world for all to see.
Pastor Terry Jones
Terry Jones, pastor the Dove World Outreach Center is planning an “outreach” mission like no other. It’s a mission that’s sure to do one of two things:
1. The vision of their guiding document being engulfed in flames will somehow convince Muslims that the religion, beliefs including the Sharia Law they’ve abide by for generations, was wrong; or
2. The vision of their guiding document being engulfed in flames will somehow enraged these Muslims even more, and foster a level of hatred for Americans that quite frankly, haven’t been seen yet.
Pastor Terry Jones and his congregation are betting on the first of the two. In an interview with Chris Mathews, Jones was asked what he expects to accomplish with this public burning of the Muslim’s holy book. His response was;
“We wanna send a very clear message to them, to Muslims, that if they’re in America, ah, they are free here to worship but they must honor and respect our Constitution. We wanna send a message that we do not want Sharia Law or Sharia courts. That is what our international Burn a Qur’an day is about.”
In another interview posted by Hement Mehta for the website Friendly Atheist, Pastor Terry Jones was asked if he thinks his Qur’an burning experiment will convert Muslims to Christianity. He replied;
“This is our prayer and desire that they would seriously reexamine their religion. They will then come to the conclusion that Islam is of the devil and Christianity is the only true religion.”
Dove World Outreach Center was founded in 1986 by Dr. Don Northrup. He died 10 years later in 1996 and the mission was passed on the Pastor Terry Jones. Jones has since taken Dove World Outreach Center in such a direction that Dr. Northrup’s wife Elsie Northrup, said she left the church several months ago over concerns about where the congregation was headed.
Under the leadership of Terry Jones, Dove World Outreach Center has also gained an investigative nod from the government for blurring the vision of the Church’s tax-exempt status, and a for profit business run by Terry Jones and his wife, Sylvia. The for-profit business is housed in the facility of the tax-exempt church, and uses non paid church members to provide and produce merchandise for sale online. According to reports from The Gainsville Sun, the County Property Appraiser, Sheila Crapo said;
“If they can prove that the money that they make goes into the ministry, then it’s above board. We’re going to be taking a look at how they use their properties. As long as there is a predominate use, 51 percent of the property, being used for (religious) services, it’s exempt.”
In September 11th2001, a series of coordinated attacks on various locations in the United States were carried out by 19 Al Qaeda terrorists, who hijacked four commercial airlines. Two of the hijacked planes were flown into the Twin Towers of The World Trade Centers, another flown into the Pentagon and the fourth plane crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania. In total, 2995 people from 77 different countries died in the attacks.
So why then, is Terry Jones and his followers choosing now – September 11th 2010 – as the time they finally want to act. Did it just take nine years for the truth of September 11th to sink in, or is it something more sinister, more ominous, and more evil. Could it be that the true reason Mr. Terry Jones choose this time to act is all political?
In the Chris Mathews interview, Jones was asked if there was anyone in public life he respects. After some hesitation, Mr. Jones answered that George Bush was the person he respected. The assertion can then be made that Jones decided to wait until his president was out of office before acting in this way. Furthermore, it can be stated that Terry Jones knew the burning of the sacred book of any other religious group will have a destabilizing effect worldwide, so waiting until his choice for President was out of office was the only way to go.
Since the Obama Administration was sworn in, Republicans have used hate and fear to divide this great nation. Every group from Blacks to Jews to Latinos to Gays and now to Muslims have received their full share of hate from these Republicans. Their main objective is to create an atmosphere of fear, to divide this nation and now with the efforts of Pastor Terry Jones, to create even more hate against Americans abroad.
Yes, at a time when President Obama proclaimed the coming together of red states and blue states to again become the United States. At a time when the rest of the world is once again looking at America with the respect we’ve lost over the last 8 years, Republicans and now Pastor Terry Jones is doing their best to keep things from changing.
A United America and regaining our respect from the rest of the world is not the change Republicans want to believe in.
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Related articles
- Pastor Terry Jones: Crazy Koran-burning dude gets death threats (shortformblog.com)
- Far From Ground Zero, Obscure Pastor Is Ignored No Longer (nytimes.com)
- Pastor says armed militia to protect church during Quran-burning event (cnn.com)
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