10 Reasons Not to Burn a Quran -- and How to Fight Bigotry

Opposition is mounting to the "Burn a Quran Day" scheduled for September 11th in Florida. General David Petraeus said it could harm our troops, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called it unrepresentative of Americans. Attorney General Eric Holder called it "idiotic and dangerous," and the Vatican has called the planned demonstration "outrageous and grave."

But the event planners, Terry Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center, are moving forward in spite of the outcry. In fact, they posted five MORE reasons to burn a Quran on their blog just yesterday.

Human Rights First has compiled our own list -- we asked our supporters to submit reasons NOT to burn a Koran. We received over 5,000 responses. Below is the Top 10 list:

Ten Reasons NOT to Burn a Koran

1. Book burning! Do I really need to say why?
2. By not burning a Koran I'm not burning a bridge to communication.
3. Burning the Koran because of extremist Taliban and Al-Qaeda terrorists makes no more sense than burning the Bible because of the Ku Klux Klan or Nazis.
4. Hatred breeds more hatred and that is not going to solve any of our problems.
5. That type of hate-filled religious intolerance has no place anywhere in the world, and is especially abhorrent in a country where religious freedom is one of the pillars of its foundation.
6. It's a sacred book to millions of people. We should respect all people's beliefs.
7. It will only inflame. I'd like people to understand each other.
8. I may not believe in the words of the Koran but I would never burn one out of respect for my fellow humans who do.
9. Support our troops!
10. We must learn to coexist. We cannot continue to live in fear and suspicion.

You can make a stand with us. Show the fearmongers and the world that Americans don't stand for bigotry by ordering your free "Americans Don't Burn Books" bookmark (you just need to cover shipping and handling).

Help us urge other leaders--including former President George W. Bush--to speak out against bigotry. He and members of his administration spoke out for tolerance and freedom of religion during his presidency. George W. Bush could make a difference by speaking out now.

We need everyone to speak out -- Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Join our efforts--get your bookmark and carry it proudly!

 

Follow Sharon Kelly on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@humanrights1st

Comments

[Gustavo Rejivik]

08:23 PM on 09/08/2010

Wow, I find it amazing how Progressives are defending Religion here ... and our Troops!!

Flag Burning and desecration of Christianity (Crucifix in a jar of urine, Virgin Mary composed of dung) were celebrated .. in fact promoted by the Left as part of Freedom of Speech or Artistic Freedom. So why the about face now in regards to the Koran??

I'm not for desecrating any Nation or Religion's symbols but I'm interested to see how this one turns out. Let them burn the Koran and risk ending up like Van Gogh at the hands of Islam. Right now in the Middle East they are burning the American Flag in a pre-emptive insult to this Koran Burning as a show of tolerance. Most media outlets dubbed this as "a protest" to the Koran burning but did not show what Muslims were doing to our Flag.

How sad. I agree with the 10 reasons listed above but am afraid we'll never see reciprocation out of the Islamic World.

[Jeremy Sherman]

04:32 PM on 09/08/2010

I'm interested in the broader issue here, the moral paradox that we should be intolerant of intolerance. The right accuses us of intolerance. They've indulged in a "first-out" advantage by accusing us of being Hitler-like in our intolerance, which makes any similar parallel drawn by us look like retaliatino. Terry Jones and Newt Gingrich argue that the Muslims drove them to their intolerance of the Koran and the Muslim YMCA two blocks from WT Center. And we say "Don't become like them. An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Were it so simple. As the trend continues it's going to be harder to resist pointing out the increasingly obvious parallels between Jones and Hitler. Hitler accused his opposition of being Hitler-like. He said they had driven him to his intolerance. Time to call the Right on similar tactics. But to do so takes skill, resolve and first-out an embrace of the moral paradox and the way it admits that Jones and Newt are right about one thing: Sometimes we have to fight fires with fire, intolerance with intolerance though they are wrong about this being their moment to do so.