Off the top of my head, Sri Lankan terrorists assassinated the friggin’ Indian prime minister. They have also been running mafia in Toronto (don’t know if that’s gone away with the Tigers in defeat.) Other examples of non-Muslim terrorists being active outside their own country aren’t hard to think up either: Sikh terrorists were responsible for the Air India bombing; Irish nationalists attacked targets in England; Chechens attacked targets in Moscow (TBF, really just a distant part of the same country); Aum Shinrikyo attacked its own country but used Australia to test nerve gas; etc. It’s not especially common to attack outside your own region, but then again, there haven’t been that many attacks inside the West, either, and often those have been run by local crazies anyway.
IOW, I don’t know exactly how Islam compares to other religions and groups in terms of exporting terrorism, but it’s plainly not outside the boundaries of normality.
Still hoping for Rage boy. Why was it such a big thing? Just because some dude nobody ever heard of before says he’s going to do the thing. It’s not like it hasn’t been done a thousand times before. There are ca. 10,000 videos on YouTube of burning korans.
I’ve been reading about the latest developments in the news today. And while I have no personal interest in burning the Koran, or the Bible, or the American flag, we live in a country in which those forms of expression are permitted. So, I’m glad that the burning will not take place. But I am not so wild about the government being so protective about not burning one particular book—whatever it is.
Part of me now wishes that the burning would take place. Not for the statement it would make about the Koran, but for the principle it would uphold for the U.S. It’s all fine and well for adherents of any religion to treat their books with an appropriate, even ridiculous amount of deference and respect. But the rest of the world has no such obligation. And there is certainly no such obligation for citizens of a country in which you can burn the flag to give the Koran any special place.
This is troublesome. We’re allowing them, through the threat of ramped up violence, to dictate the actions of American non-Muslims. This sets a bad precedent. I think it’s time to tell the part of the Muslim world that is backward, extreme, and violent to go fuck themselves. First the cartoon bullshit and now this. Enough already. These scumbags—and that’s what the people are who would resort to violence due to a cartoon or a Koran burning—need to be told in front of the whole world that the world does not share your fucked-up, contorted view of the world.
So, let the Korans burn on television in between cartoons of Muhammad falling in love with a pig.
This has got to stop. The extremists are not going to become more moderate. They will be emboldened, and then think they have the right to make some other demands down the road. Nope. Let the confrontation begin now.
I was wondering, was it “The Daily Show” that first brought national attention to this? Because I don’t remember hearing anything about it until they showed some local new story on it during a larger segment about the Ground Zero mosque controversy.
So let me get this straight. If we burn the Koran, the extremists will become enraged, and launch even more terrorist acts against American interests.
But if we don’t burn the Koran, the extremists will be emboldened, and will launch even more terrorist acts against American interests.
Our actions have no effect on the extremists; they are sworn to attack us no matter what we do. It is time to stop basing our actions on what we think the extremists will do. Enraging them is no better than emboldening them, so why don’t we just say FUCK THEM and show more concern for the sensibilities of our allies rather than our enemies?
We should do what we know is the right thing to do, which is not to offend or insult our friends in the Muslim community, by burning their holy books, or by blocking the construction of their houses of worship. By lumping them in with the extremists, we lose the debate altogether, and the terrorists win.
BBC TV just now announced some Breaking News. Said the pastor in Florida just announced the burning had not been canceled after all, but rather simply put on hold. He said he felt “lied to” by the imam in New York now that the latter has said he’s not planning to move the WTC mosque after all.
I get the tongue in cheek part of your post, but since you wouldn’t care about their thoughts on you going to hell, why would you care about them burning their own copy of your book?
I could see if they stole YOUR personal copy of the book.
I’m just meh about the whole thing. So fifty morons are going to burn the Koran. So what? I’ll bet you could find 50 people in this country that would do a whole bunch of crazy fucked up things. They don’t get international air time, though. They don’t speak for the rest of America.
Are we really suggesting that Americans should curtail our free speech rights in order to placate terrorists so that they won’t harm us?
News flash: They are already trying to harm us in the best ways that they can. Let those dumbfucks in Gainesville have their little party and be done with it. If Islamic countries don’t like it, I understand, but they need to know that it is called “freedom” and it is what we are about.
Having a boil sticking out of the side or your neck can be painful and embarrassing. I really and sincerely hope that this latest twist in the clusterfuck finally succeeds in lancing this damn thing.
I had a sneaking suspicion when I read the initial report — which indicated that the burning was canceled because the “Ground Zero Mosque” was going to be relocated — that something like this would be the next development.
Now Jones gets to back off (at least somewhat) without looking like he’s caving in, while at the same time scoring points against the eeeeeeevillllll, deceptive Muslims.
I seriously doubt that Jones was in contact with anyone at Park51, and I doubt even more that he had any sort of agreement with Imam Rauf.
This morning’s web is reporting the Nut is saying that he has cut a deal with the Ground Zero Mosque and the burning event is cancelled. The Ground Zero Mosque is saying there is no deal.