Pastor Terry Jones’ Quran Burning Results in the Death of Eight UN Workers
April 1, 2011 at 4:30 PM 6 comments
Remember Terry Jones, the fundamentalist Florida pastor who wanted to hold a Quran-burning ceremony on 9/11? He didn’t do it after hearing it would be seen as an act of religious warfare in the Middle East (and after a New Jersey car dealer gave him a car).
(Image via.)
Well, apparently he just couldn’t stand it any longer and on March 21 he held his long-desired Quran burning ceremony:
The controversial Gainesville pastor, who threatened to publicly burn a Quran on the anniversary of 911 last year, has gone through with it.
Last weekend, Pastor Terry Jones held a mock trial at his church that ended with a book burning.However, his latest stunt received very little publicity.On the Dove World Outreach Center website Pastor Jones announced a trial date.”International judge the Quran day. Yes. We are going to do it,” Jones said.
Last Sunday, Jones’ Gainesville church was converted into a courtroom, complete with prosecutor, defense attorney, witnesses and Jones as the judge.Jones accused Islam’s holy book of promoting violence. So he put it on trial.
The pastor created an international incident last September when he planned to burn Qurans on the 911 anniversary.He backed down and promised to never put a match to the book. But this trial had a different set of rules.”The Quran, if found guilty, can be burned,” said Jones.
And after six hours of testimony in front of 30 spectators and a crew from an Orlando film school, it was burned.
And today: UN staff beheaded in Afghan attack sparked by US pastor’s Quran burning:
At least eight foreign United Nations workers were killed Friday, two of them reportedly beheaded, in an attack on a U.N. compound in Afghanistan by demonstrators protesting the burning of a Quran by a U.S. pastor.
[...]
The U.N. workers — including five guards working for U.N. and two other people employed at the complex, the AP reported — were killed in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif when the protest there suddenly turned violent.
As many as 20 in total were thought to have been killed, according to the Guardian, and one report said the dead included Norwegian, Romanian and Swedish employees.
A U.N. spokesman Dan McNorton said that details remained unclear, but that the top U.N. representative in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, was traveling to the area to handle the matter, CNN reported.
But according to Reuters, more than a thousand protesters had flooded into the streets of the normally peaceful city after Friday prayers when violence broke out. A small group then attacked the U.N. compound, throwing stones and climbing on blast barriers to try and enter.
Watch the video at the link above (photo of protest poster is a screenshot from it). They. Are. Furious.
Tragic that people are dying due to the actions of a madman.
Entry filed under: Dumbed Down, Foreign Policy, Middle East, Religion, Terror, The World, Wars, WingNutO'Sphere. Tags: .
1.
MtZerin | April 1, 2011 at 11:37 PM
As an ordained minister and representative of the Lord Jesus Christ I refer to PROVERBS 26:
“MR” Jones – Verse 11
“As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly”
To those not of our faith – Verse 4
“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.”
And to those who gave him a stage – Verse 20
“Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out: so where there is no talebearer, the strife ceaseth.”
2.
chrish | April 2, 2011 at 12:50 AM
I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. Yes, he’s an ass, an attention whore, a phony reverend, but this is America and we can burn books. The people who reacted with brutal murders are the real madmen. I can understand anger and rage, but to take it out on ANYone, especially innocent, unconnected people, is so far beyond comprehension.
I don’t want to disrespect anyone’s religion (even though I think it’s all different flavors of crap) but they make it hard to honor them with these primitive, undisciplined acts of barbarism.
3.
Say It Ain't So Already | April 2, 2011 at 8:42 AM
I agree.
4.
Zezee | April 2, 2011 at 9:12 PM
Well, I hope he is happy now that he has the blood of so many innocents on his hands.
And no, it’s not the “madmen” to lay the blame on. Pastor Jones KNEW that this will happen. That was the reason he initially withdrew his intention of burning the Quran. then he decided to do it, KNOWING this is the kind of reaction that will ensue.
It’s like having an enraged bull, and taking a stick and poking it to draw blood, and then when the bull kills whomever is in it’s path, you’d blame the bull, not the one who poked it with the stick.
5.
Janet | April 3, 2011 at 11:12 AM
Yes Zezee. Having the “right” to do something doesn’t make it a good idea. A “man of God,” or any civilized person for that matter, should not go around looking for things to do to piss people off.
Especially people whose culture is so different from the US. I say let’s put this bastard on trial and find HIM guilty of provoking violence. He’s a total disgrace and I wish he could be punished in some way. He fucking knew what he was doing. I don’t know what delusions he suffers, but he should be put away.
6.
Say It Ain't So Already | April 3, 2011 at 2:52 PM
Agreed. And yeah, what’s a “man of God” doing pushing such deep hate?