William Flew on Religious Bigotry

His burning of a Quran sparked deadly protests in Afghanistan, but now a Florida pastor says he wants to put the prophet Mohammed on trial for crimes against humanity.  Terry Jones says despite what he claims have been hundreds of death threats against him, and a $2.4 million bounty on his head, his Dove World Outreach Center will continue to push for a stop to radical Islam. 

"We are actually not doing it because we desire to be killed, we are not doing it because we desire publicity," says Jones.  "We really believe our message is that important, that the radical element of Islam is a danger to our society."

Jones says it's time the finger is pointed at the real problem, not him.

"What we would like to see come out of this," he says, "is the United States and other western countries would try to force Muslim dominated countries to open up their doors to equal rights, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, even being removed from the United Nations."

However, Mustaffa Carroll with the Council on American-Islamic Relations says it is people like Jones, not followers of Islam, who are the biggest threat to the world.

"You can be a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew, Buddhist or what have you," says Carroll.  "The bottom line is, what we do in this world is what makes us good.  Whether we burn Qurans and Bibles, or Torahs, it’s kind of silly in this 21st Century world that we live in."

Fark comments

So a guy that is freaking out against Sharia Law is holding trials that are only meaningful within the confines of his religion, and wants the the rest of the world to pay attention to them.

Am I getting this correct?

He knows for a fact that his previous actions caused the death of a number of people. From that, he can surmise that this could do the same. He is more of an AW than Charlie Sheen or Giraldo. Someone should use his body to block the cracks of a Japanese Nuclear Power plant.

Individual Moslems may show splendid qualities. Thousands become the brave and loyal soldiers of the Queen; all know how to die; but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science -the science against which it had vainly struggled -the civilisation of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilisation of ancient Rome.

-Winston Churchill

WWJD?

Apparently, he would burn books and put other religions on trial. I missed that part of the New Testament.

all religions deserve to be ridiculed

Hold him liable for the damages done by the riots. Have the UN bill him, throw liens up against his church and its properties. Drive him into bankruptcy and let him reap what he has sown.

sternly worded invoice?

saddest thing is the crazy fundies can't even conceive that they're really just the other side of the same crazy coin

We should put Yahweh on trial for crimes against humanity.

Yeah. If he's not a criminal, why does he need so many aliases? Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, El, etc...

Ahhh, America.

You can burn the Bible and you can burn the American flag, but don't you dare burn the Quran. That might upset somebody.

Don't be a douche. Both things are equally likely to at the very least earn you some extremely nasty comments, and possibly even threats. But doing something you now KNOW has incited people to KILL?

Well, that takes an extra level of vileness. The guy simply doesn't care who dies to further his agenda. Disgusting.

I'm going to shoot your dog if you say "purple nurple three times fast"

-purple nurple purple nurple purple nurple

*BLAM*

Would the dog be dead if you had been silent? No. Is the person to blame the one that shot the dog. Yes

Is the dog still dead? Yes. Do you want the dog to be dead? No.

I think this clearly outlines the point I'm trying to make.

This pastor knew that there would be a backlash of some sort in the Muslim world. There always has been in the past. He may not have known to what degree (from protests to flag/effigy burning to killing) they would take it but he knew there would be some sort of backlash. While he may not be criminally liable I think that he is morally liable. I liken it to inciting a mob to violence.

So what do you propose? Censorship? Should we legally bar people from expressing themselves in case someone else in the world decides to go on a killing spree? In other words, do we let the terrorists win?

And yes, that is exactly what we are doing if we prohibit free speech because we are afraid of violent reactions. We let the terrorists win. And yes, this is territory that South Park covered LONG ago.

I'm not defending Jones. I'm a Christian and find his actions a direct contradiction of the teachings of Christ. But he's an American and free to express himself in a horrible way. You don't have the right to not be offended.

Would you argue that Martin Luther King Jr. should be blamed if one of his speeches caused the KKK to kill people? If King knew there would be a violent reaction to his speech, would you argue that King is morally responsible for the Klan's killings. After all, there WOULD be a backlash. Therefore, King is morally responsible for what the Klan does.

Bottom line, Jones has a right to express himself. Just as Muslims have the right to build a Mosque in Manhatten. Freedom is freedom. You don't have to like it -you have the freedom to disagree- but they still have the right to do it. This is America.

Can you come up with an instance of Christians killing somebody for insulting Jesus that's happened in, say, the past 20 years?

do some research on the...

KKK
Army of God
Christian Identity
Christian Patriots
Lambs of Christ
Concerned Christians
Scott Roeder

So that would be no then, got it.

terrorists in your christianity? its more likely than you think