Qur'an Burning in Florida

I'm sure most of you have heard of this story in which a Florida pastor, Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre, is planning on burning copies of Islam's holy Book, the Qur'an, on Saturday; which is also the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center (I make note of that fact because apparently a large number of Americans have forgotten exactly what happened that day). I'll come right out and be the first to admit, yes, Christians are still persecuting others. However, there is a slight difference here. The Bible is not preaching the murder of other faiths, and mainstream Christian is not participating, it is the action of a (very) small number of radicals.

This comes right at a time when our nation is all but up in arms about the proposed construction of the 'Cordoba House', an Islamic cultural center/place of worship. You know, what really gets to me about this whole controversy is that millions upon millions of Americans (one in seven, according to a CNN poll I linked to earlier this month on my NYC Mosque Debate post) are against this building and no attention is paid to all of them; but suddenly this pastor, with a congregation of about 50 people, suddenly speaks for an entire nation??

I'm not going to get into whether or not this is a good idea, or if it is morally right, because I think we can all agree that it's not. If you're for the idea of burning the Qur'an, what would you say if Muslims wanted to burn the Bible (or whichever holy book you believe in)? Would you be all for it? Would you allow them to do so without attempting to somehow stop it? The pastor is (from what I
heard on the Glenn Beck radio show) quoting Acts 19:19. Let's see here, I'll give you Acts 19:19 from the Authorized King James Version. "Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver." There you have it folks, "many of them". This is NOT talking about Christians going out and burning books of other people, it is talking about the people burning their own books. If you hear anyone arguing over this verse and whether or not it gives Jones right to burn the Qur'an, PLEASE tell them what the truth is.

General David Petraeus has spoken against the action, warning that it may lead to further attacks on American troops. State Department is warning Americans traveling abroad to "be alert" due to the pastor's actions.

This has the making of a very interesting story, and I hope we all remain vigilant in the next few days to see what will happen, both in Florida and the rest of the world.

A few other sources of the story:
CNN
jihadwatch.org