...and we have a winner In the ongoing contest for a title of THE WORST AMERICAN. The winner is:
Pastor Terry Jones - an evangelical preacher from an nondenominational church of Gainesville, Fla. , who on March 20, 2011 burned a copy of the Islam Holy Book, after months of a public condemnation of the aforementioned act.
Intolerance is a part of the human psyche. There is no doubt about it. In the less socially advanced societies as well as those based on any kind of dogma (religious or political), intolerance leads to hatred, sometimes manifested by the acts of stupidity, sometimes by the acts of violence... In some dictatorial states, unsuspecting anything World learned about the racial, or ethnic tensions only after deposing of the regime, and springing from it ethnic cleansing. It was a case in the former Yugoslavia, it was a case in Rwanda, even Iraq...
More advanced socially, democratic states of Europe and America are not immune to these tensions, although the resulting from it hatred doesn't produce as many victims as in the previous examples, with the obvious exception of the Holocaust of the Jewish population in the invaded by Germany countries of Europe during the World War 2.
During more than 200 years of forging of the United States of America, it's society went through many dark periods, producing never healed scars in the people's minds.
Let aside the never completely eradicated (yet), racism, which still affects the fabric of our society, there were periods of time when a certain ethnic or religious minorities were isolated, detained, persecuted just for being members of that particular minority. It happened during the World War 2 to the Japanese minority. Many Japanese-Americans being a long time citizens of the USA or even born here, became the subject to the detention in the "War Relocation Camps" in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack. Of those interned, 62% were American citizens.
In the late XIX century for a quite a long time the Catholics in the USA were a target of the severe persecution.
In the early nineteen-fifties a senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy instigated a country-wide mass hysteria which cased a "witch hunt", a persecution of anybody who could be accused (in the most cases falsely) of any Communist tendencies, or sympathies.
And then came 911, when 19 terrorists, acting out of hatred to our Country and the West in general attacked the USA in the worst terrorist attack ever, on our land. They were from a few different countries. They had, however, one thing in common (beside the obvious hatred to the USA) - they were all MUSLIM.
The Anti-Muslim sentiments have been always lurking in the Western societies. People fear what they can't understand. Muslim population in a great degree does not assimilate well in the Western countries. They stand out. Look a bit different, dress a bit different... But the 911 opened the Pandora's Box. The Muslim population in the US (about 3 million strong) became a target of violence, vandalism, arson...
In the meantime America got involved in 2 big wars, against Afghanistan, and Iraq (both Muslim countries). And even then our (then) President G.W. Bush explained over and over that America was not in the war with Islam, just with some of it's extreme followers.
In the beginning of this year the Congressional Hearing was called for, to investigate "The threat of radicalization of Muslim Community in the USA".
"We continue to solicit and receive the support of many Muslim Americans who love this nation and work with our government to protect it," said Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, who chaired the proceedings.
"At the same time, many law-abiding Muslim Americans face discrimination and charges that they're not real Americans simply because of their religion."
We all know what the Islamist Extremists are responsible for in the World. We hear about the suicide bombers or attacks on the hotels, political assassinations in Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan... It's easy to stir our imagination knowing that since 911 more than a hundred terrorist plots have been discovered and neutralized in the States. Most of them have been dealt with successfully thanks to the Muslim Community, which in general is a community of the law obedient and honest, hard working people who are grateful for the opportunities presented by the USA.
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Christians value their Bible as a Holy Book - written by the disciples, telling the truth of faith, but still being only a book. It's not a case with the Islam. The Quran (Kur'an, Koran etc) is in their beliefs not only a book containing the holly scripture. In their belief the Quran itself is THE WORD OF GOD. There are many aspects of the Islam, the non-believers do not understand (and their do not need to). However, the ignorance can NEVER be an excuse for any offensive acts against any religion.
In 2005 a Danish newspaper posted a series of cartoons showing a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad (so called "Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy"). Since the Prophet's depiction is blasphemous to people of the Muslim faith, the protests exploded in many of the Muslim countries, some of which escalated into violence with instances of firing on crowds of protesters (resulting in a total of more than 100 reported deaths), including setting fire to the Danish Embassies in Syria, Lebanon and Iran, storming European buildings, and burning the Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, French and German flags in Gaza City.
The act of posting such cartoons by a Danish cartoonist was an offensive act which had it's consequences (and it wasn't out of ignorance). We all learned about that in a hard way. Many people lost their lives...
In July 2010 the US public opinion was suddenly alerted by the prospect of another act against the Islam as such. In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, planed to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks. "We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones told CNN's Rick Sanchez. Terry Jones was also an author of a book titled "Islam is of the Devil.
To my surprise, the general response of the US society to this proposed act of dangerous stupidity, was overwhelmingly negative. Muslim community, along with the most of Evangelicals and other Christian denominations condemned the idea, as unnecessarily inflammatory, and carrying the unforeseen risks. In a few days preceding the planned event we learned that in Baghdad itself, there was a small Christian community who's church had been attacked several times prior to these events, and who's very existence would be threatened by the possible reaction to the proposed Quran burning.
And yet, on March 20, 2011 Pastor Terry Jones carried away his offensive, idiotic act. He burned a copy of the Quran and posted the video of it on YouTube.com...
Most of the logically thinking people in the World condemned it unanimously, along with the official disapproval of many governments. However, in Kabul, Afghanistan, the mass protests escalated into a violence when demonstrators set cars and shops ablaze. The uproar even brought violence to the normally peaceful northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, when a crowd of protesters — apparently infiltrated by insurgents — stormed the U.N. compound in an attack that left four Afghan protesters and seven foreign U.N. employees dead. Several days after the violent protests in Afghanistan started, the tensions are still strong and the demonstrations continue, reviving the growing discontent of the Afghans against the US occupation. Anti-Western sentiments triggered by the act of Pastor Terry Jones resulted also in several additional suicide bombings and numerous incidents of the flag burning.
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After 2005 Danish cartoon incident we already had a chance to learn what is the reaction of the Muslims around the World to the blasphemy perpetrated by the West. It has already happened. People have died in the result of it. The relation between the act itself and the Muslim response is clearly defined and understood by all.
Bearing this knowledge, how can any sane person commit such an offensive (and proving nothing) act and completely disregard the danger of instigating the violence which may cost many innocent lives?
How can a person who claims to be a "Man of God" be so shortsighted and egocentric to cause a loss of life of many, just to prove (in his mind) a point. The reaction of very conservative Muslims in Afghanistan has not been unfathomable. Quite a contrary, it was an easy to predict reaction, following the same pattern as in 2005.
In my eyes, Pastor Terry Jones is directly responsible for the resulting from his act, loss of life and increased instability of the region, since he did what he did, being aware of the consequences. He himself killed the victims of the riots in Afghanistan.
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