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

Murder in Dearbornistan

Good evening ladies and gentlemen. I was looking at some of the groups I'm part of on Facebook a while ago when I came across this article. It's old news (13 July, 2010), I know, but I was just made aware of it and to tell you the truth, I am not happy and I think everyone out there should feel the same after reading all of the information. I have a feeling I'm gonna get a lot of flak for this if people start reading this blog but hey, if everyone agrees with you then you're not doing a very good job right?

This is just...I don't even know what to call it. Atrocious? For a quick recap of what happened, 30 year old Alexander Tom Yono (a Chaldean, an Iraqi Catholic) was severely beaten by 15 Shi'ite men (some of them boys really, aging from 17 up to their early 20s, from what I can gather). They surrounded him, produced a knife and began their attack. Yono deployed his own blade and fought back, stabbing (which ultimately led to the death of) Mohamad Ali Fouad Abboudd, an 18 or 19 year old Lebanese Shi'ite. Three others were seriously injured in their attack. Abboudd was playing cards when he received a phone call to "come beat up some Chaldeans." According to other card players, he quit the game and left. 15 Muslims against one Chaldean and his girlfriend...sounds like Muslim hate and aggression to me, how about you?

Well, guess what? Yono was charged with second-degree murder, three counts of assault with intent to murder and felonious assault. His trial was last month. And if that's not downright ridiculous and wrong enough, the media provides a very jaded (and false) account, claimed Yono "got aggressive" during the birthday celebration in the bus he was on. To even think about this story being valid...would you go against 15 men, all ten or more years younger than you? Especially in a bus? No!

Here's Yono's booking photograph:



At this time, I am unable to find anything on his trial. I will update with more information if I can find it.



A few of the other media "reports" (links were long, so I shortened them with HTML, click on the link and it will take you directly to the story):
pressandguide.com
clickondetroit.com
downriversundaytimes.com