April 6, 2011
In response to Dan K. Thomasson of the Scripps Howard News Service’s article: A religious zealot with soldiers’ blood on his hands, which appeared in the Herald Mail on April 6, 2011 there are a couple of things I feel need to be said.
Let me first of all state that neither do I agree with Terry Jones’ burning of the Quran. It is very sad that this act has caused the death of more people and is a perfect example of how one’s actions have an effect on others for, either, good and ill. I am not, by any means, defending Mr. Jones’ decision. It is a shame that more innocent people have had to die and I am not discounting that. However, there are a few things we must realize and some facts we must face.
The people that have died because of this act of burning the Quran died as a by-product of the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. That’s right, were it not for the attack on the World Trade Center the burning of the Quran would not have taken place. Does this justify Mr. Jones’ actions? Absolutely not! And Mr. Jones should have had better discernment. But let’s remind ourselves what caused this reaction.
On September 11, 2001 the United States was attack by religious zealots who caused the death of thousands of our fellow Americans as well as some foreigners working in or around the World Trade Center. This is not including the countless others such as firefighters, rescue workers, policeman, military personnel, and civilians who will, yet, die from lung disease and other complications as a result of selflessly doing their jobs rescuing people’s loved ones and defending our great nation. It was an attack that was, as far as we know, unprovoked.
Tonight as I sat at my computer and looked, again, at the pictures of the World Trade Center under attack and the smoke billowing from what was the symbol of the financial freedom of the free world and saw, again, the people who chose to jump to their deaths rather than fry in the heat, I am reminded of the brutal price we are all still paying. The price some have paid much more costly than the price others have and are paying. I am reminded that this atrocity did not take place because of someone in Florida burning the Quran. It took place because of someone who hates our nation and that for which it stands.
I am a Christian, but if someone burns the Bible I am not going to riot and kill someone and especially those who had nothing to do with it. I would pray that they would get right with God and realize His great love for them. To say that the burning of the Quran caused the “spate of violence in Afghanistan” is to say that we control the reactions of those who carried out this violence. It is to say that they are not responsible for their own actions. Any intelligent, thinking person would have to admit that is not true.
This is not about taking sides with Mr. Jones. It is about seeing this straight on and not from a parallax view. Mr. Thomasson, that is, apparently, the view from which you are seeing this. It is about realizing that we are at war in foreign nations because we were the ones attacked. It is about not “straining at a gnat to swallow a camel.”
Yes, Mr. Jones is wrong but Mr. Jones does not control the violent reactions of others and I doubt 9/11 was his idea. Let me say, I have nothing against Muslims but I have plenty against those (whoever they are) that chose to attack the nation that I love and the freedoms, rights, and privileges I enjoy here. Many have died and still are dying defending those freedoms, rights, and privileges so that you, Mr. Thomasson, can write your column and so that Mr. Jones, whether or not we agree with him, can burn the Quran.
