Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach center in Gainesville, Florida is planning on burning copies of the Quran (the holy book of the religion of Islam) on September 11. How that is any sort of rational outreach to the rest of the world is beyond me. It's going to put our troops overseas in harms way. He should be prevented from doing this, right?
Well, this is where that annoying libertarian voice in me starts to speak.
People are free in this country to burn the United States Flag in protest, don white robes and burn crucifixes, burn copies of the Quran/Bible, etc., write and air satirical cartoons depicting Jesus and or the Prophet Muhammad, make art works depicting the Virgin Mary out of elephant dung... hell, even an Imam can build a Mosque adjacent to Ground Zero!
What's common between these things? For starters, they are all things that have actually happened (or may happen in the case of Terry Jones' plans)... read the list again, surprising to consider all of this as reality!
One may suggest that these actions are all done "In bad taste". Have we forgotten what this means? There are various things that we are free to do, but choose not to do them because they are simply in bad taste. It is these things that usually are not very helpful at fostering outreach and building bridges to begin with. How much outreach and "bridge-building" is Quran burning (or Mosque building at Ground Zero for that matter) really going to foster? However, the concept of "bad taste" does not seem to matter any more.
Since this is [unfortunately] the case, we are put in a position where we have to civilly disagree. By that I mean we can choose not watch the satirical cartoon and view the piece of artwork we find offensive. We can chose no longer to attend the Dove World Outreach center. Civility is key though because if you wish to disagree by physically harming those who offend you (like those over seas might do towards our troops), that too is "in bad taste" and it just continues the cycle over and over.
Well, this is where that annoying libertarian voice in me starts to speak.
People are free in this country to burn the United States Flag in protest, don white robes and burn crucifixes, burn copies of the Quran/Bible, etc., write and air satirical cartoons depicting Jesus and or the Prophet Muhammad, make art works depicting the Virgin Mary out of elephant dung... hell, even an Imam can build a Mosque adjacent to Ground Zero!
What's common between these things? For starters, they are all things that have actually happened (or may happen in the case of Terry Jones' plans)... read the list again, surprising to consider all of this as reality!
One may suggest that these actions are all done "In bad taste". Have we forgotten what this means? There are various things that we are free to do, but choose not to do them because they are simply in bad taste. It is these things that usually are not very helpful at fostering outreach and building bridges to begin with. How much outreach and "bridge-building" is Quran burning (or Mosque building at Ground Zero for that matter) really going to foster? However, the concept of "bad taste" does not seem to matter any more.
Since this is [unfortunately] the case, we are put in a position where we have to civilly disagree. By that I mean we can choose not watch the satirical cartoon and view the piece of artwork we find offensive. We can chose no longer to attend the Dove World Outreach center. Civility is key though because if you wish to disagree by physically harming those who offend you (like those over seas might do towards our troops), that too is "in bad taste" and it just continues the cycle over and over.
No comments:
Post a Comment