There are many moronic people in the world who do moronic things and whose actions actively undermine the validity of any argument or idea they attempt to associate themselves with. Enter pastor Terry Jones of ‘Dove World Outreach Center‘ and architect of the publicity stunt ‘International Burn a Qu’ran Day‘ an event that is supposed to take place on September 11th and will see Jones and others burn Qu’rans.
Jones is doing this because he is an idiot. Granted he might tell you different and give you a line of malarkey to explain his actions. I don’t care. There is no valid or reasonable explanation for this publicity stunt that would lend credibility to himself, his beliefs or his cause. Burning books for this purpose is an obscene and abhorrent action that invalidates the intent of those who do it. The only non-violent action equivalent is burning the flag of ones own country in similar faux protest.
This mans actions will not be representative of anything valid in the world. His actions will instead become a representation of something worse than all the invectives one could hurl upon him. They will be irrelevant, meaningless, actions that will have no reasonable, artistic or symbolic significance for the human race and represent only a barren wasteland where no ideas or arguments exist. The action will be devoid of valuable intellectual or spiritual expression and will be made out of ignorance and hate.
One could argue Jones has every right to burn books, as long as he has purchased or obtained them legally. I don’t disagree with that, for he has every right to do so just as the owner of a couch has every right to urinate upon it. Neither would be an action taken in sanity or decency and each would be equivalent in their lack of coherence or purpose. We all have the right to do as we wish with our own property, but it is the right of sane and decent people to observe when we witness acts of insanity. Burning books out of hate is instanity.
One could argue that when pitted against the mass of horrible atrocities committed upon the world in the name of Islam, this action is well deserved. Such thinking is ludicrous, for we are responsible and judged by our own actions and the ignorance or evil of one does not justify the ignorance and evil of another. We are defined by our conduct and Jones has set this as an example of his character.
Update: Both Sarah Palin & Mitt Romney have come out for sanity on this issue.
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