The Shoe's On The Other Foot Now

On the day before September 11, I'm feeling particularly provocative. So I thought I'd start my article with the famous Gustave Dore 1885 illustration of Mohammed in hell, exposing his removed entrails to Dante and Virgil. Since the first hint that Muslims were planning on building a triumphalist mosque at Ground Zero, we who oppose it have been excoriated as bigots, Islamaphobes, haters, radicals, Nazis and despisers of the First Amendment.

Note: Subsequent to the writing of this article, Baptist pastor Terry Jones announced that he is canceling the Koran-burning. His early stated reason is that the promoters of the Ground Zero mosque have agreed to move the mosque away from Ground Zero. Imam al Rauf doesn't seem to have any such plans. However, since this article is about the reactions to the Koran-burning rather than the Koran-burning itself, I'm going to leave the article in place.

We must learn to be tolerant and sensitive to Muslim feelings while ignoring our own feelings. Never mind the words of the chief organizer of the mosque, Faisal Abdul al Rauf, who will not denounce Hamas as a terrorist organization and was rewarded by the Obama administration with a good will tour of the Middle East. Ignore the short distance between the mosque and the site of nearly 3,000 deaths caused by Muslim jihadists. Ignore the City of New York's total indifference to the plight of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church which was destroyed by the collapse of one of the towers on 9/11. Pay no attention to who is financing the project, let alone the recent restaurant waiter and now construction mogul who is "putting the deal together" even though he appears to be nearly bankrupt and deeply in debt for back taxes.

After all, we shouldn't be blaming all Muslims for the acts of a few, now should we? A few hangings of civilian American workers here, an occasional beheading of a Jew there, a blown-up marine barracks in Lebanon during peacetime, a subway attack or two in Europe, dozens of missiles lobbed into Jerusalem from Gaza, 40 people dead because of cartoon depictions of Mohammed, and, oh, 3000 people dead in New York City, the Pentagon and a lonely field in Pennsylvania. That's just the list that comes to mind immediately, but I'm quite sure it's a rarity--or so they tell me.

And let us not forget the huge crowds of moderate Muslims who have joined arms and protested the murderous acts of those few jihadists. Remember the speeches made by all the major clerics of Islam here and abroad, denouncing terrorism, praising tolerance and sensitivity toward Christians and Jews, and demanding that all murderers in the name of Islam be brought to justice wherever they are found. And don't forget the imams who have called for all Muslims to abide by the law of their chosen countries and to separate their religion from their politics. Oops, never mind, nothing in this paragraph has ever happened.

Given all that, I'll have to be forgiven if I am actually enjoying the tempest over a slightly nutty pastor of a rogue Baptist church with all of fifty members in Gainesville, Florida. He has declared his own little crusade by organizing a Koran-burning to memorialize 9/11. Let me make this perfectly clear before I proceed. I abhor book-burning of any kind, including the Koran. I think this publicity-stunt cum patriotic/religious zeal is wrong and stupid.

The left and the Islamists have managed to make a major issue out of something that would have completely passed beyond notice without their very own publicizing of the "event." But when that odd couple gets together with the complicity of the mainstream media, an ignorant and stupid move becomes a major attack on Islam deserving of pulling out all the indignation stops. As the screams of the Islamoleftists and MSM become louder and more pointed, and are joined by the condemnation of fired-up Christian pastors and Jewish rabbis, I'm slowly beginning to feel a small hint of sympathy for this clown and his congregation.

Let me borrow a major argument from the proponents of the mosque from the left, their fellow-travelers, the Islamists, and their reality-deprived supporters. "The First Amendment is absolute. No matter how inappropriate the actions, it is a violation of freedom of religion and freedom of speech ever to make a public statement opposing the acts of a particular religious group." Where are the cries of suppression of freedom of speech in Gainseville from the same people who are so tolerant of the Ground Zero mosque? Don't hold your breath waiting for them.

That First Amendment argument is totally nonsensical when it comes to the mosque, but if you're buying into it, shouldn't the same thing apply to burning the Koran on church property? Never mind it's intolerant. Never mind it's in inappropriate. Never mind who might be offended, or what acts might be taken as a result. It's all about the First Amendment, right? Wrong.

Still, I have to feel that Muslims bring these things on themselves. Would I be indignant at a public Bible-burning at an established Muslim site? Of course. Am I going to burn down a building, or murder someone, or fly a plane into the royal palace in Riyadh over it? No. But sure enough, the rumblings of violence to protest the Koran-burning are already worldwide. I want to remind everyone that the Danish cartoon depictions of Mohammed didn't produce much of a reaction at all until two years after the fact. And why then? Because some major Muslim clerics decided there weren't enough dead Westerners, started the fire and then fanned the flames of Islamic hatred. This situation isn't a lot different, except for all the help from the MSM, and the foolish Christians and Jews who have decided to pile on by calling the planned event "anti-Muslim frenzy."

I also have a bone to pick with General Petraeus. I have great admiration for the man and his successful surge in Iraq (and possibly Afghanistan). But he forgot his own rule about staying out of political and religious matters by announcing that American soldiers overseas might be endangered by the murderous rage soon to be unleashed if the Koran-burning goes forward. Well, with all due respect, he's right on the facts, wrong on the reasoning. They'll kill Americans because the sun came up in the morning. But our troops, if not their leaders, realize that this is exactly the sort of thing they are sworn to protect, even at risk of their own lives.

I fear such a reaction as well, and it's one of the reasons I think the pastor is a dangerous provocateur. But the Constitution and the military oath aren't there to protect popular speech or sweet, loving actions. Precisely the opposite. I wouldn't be surprised if Petraeus got a little encouragement from that great Constitutional scholar and Islam-submitter, Barack Obama. But it isn't Petraeus's job to protect his troops by making announcements about political and religious issues.

The Islamic hate-stirrers and their liberal sheep friends have lit the fire and fanned the flames over this previously uneventful event, and now complain that violence will follow. It's their own fault the fire has reached their holy robes and blown a hole in their lofty hypocritical rhetoric. They're like the guy who kills his parents then throws himself on the mercy of the court because he's an orphan. You poured gasoline on this fire, so don't be surprised if there's an explosion.

Of course this also proves another point I've been making for months now. Freedom of speech, religion and expression is a hateful concept in Jihadistan. Burn the Torah, and Jews will lament. Burn the New Testament, and Christians will mourn. Burn the Koran, and people, maybe lots of people, will die. That is why Islam is called "the religion of peace," at least by those foolish enough or ignorant enough not to realize that it is a religion which has at its heart holy war, submission or death for all non-Muslims, and the total melding of religion, politics and law.

Judaism and Christianity have come a long way since the Crusades. Islam is still just a few steps away from the cave from which Mohammed emerged with the revealed message of perpetual war against the infidels ensconced in the Koran and the Hadiths. The Muslims can't even agree on the latter, so the Sunnis and Shiites gleefully murder each other when they're not busy killing Westerners. For that reason, I call the pastor's proposed Koran-burning extremely unwise since it will prove just how tolerant Islam actually is. But as part of an abstract principle, it is entitled to exactly the same protection as the provocative Ground Zero mosque.

Meanwhile, good will ambassador al Rauf has declared that he has no intention of budging one inch, literally, on the location of the mosque. And then he made an announcement that if the "radicals" (meaning 70% of the American people) are successful in causing the mosque to be moved, "Muslims would come to believe that Islam is under attack." Gee, I wonder what he means by that. "Under attack." Sounds like a call to arms to me. See what I mean about the Muslims taking every disagreement with them as some kind of causa belli? Anyone "under attack" is automatically entitled to use mass murder in self-defense, you see.

One final thought on the matter. This pastor may be controversial and confrontational, and even a publicity-grabber, but he's not stupid. On Thursday (yesterday) he announced that if he received a call from Barack Hussein Obama asking him not to burn the Korans, he would call the event off. He no longer needs the Islamists and the MSM to make him famous, he's doing a pretty good job of doing it himself at this point. The only thing I can think of that would be worse than Obama not calling him would be Obama actually calling him. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. But Obama's big mouth about the Ground Zero mosque made this an opportunity the clever pastor couldn't let pass and one that Obama richly deserves.