WBC's flames produce little heat

topeka capitol journal. ^ | 9/11/10 | Phil Anderson

[Mozilla]

President Barack Obama didn't weigh in like he did when a pastor in Florida threatened to burn the Quran. And Defense Secretary Robert Gates didn't make a personal phone call urging the same minister to call it off.

The burning of a Quran and an American flag Saturday by members of Westboro Baptist Church drew little visible interest. Instead of the hoards of media representatives that descended on Florida, only a handful of area reporters turned out at noon for Westboro's burning.

"I'm glad it didn't get a lot of publicity and it didn't draw a lot of people to the church," said Imam Omar Hazim, of the Islamic Center of Topeka. "It seemed people in Topeka ignored what they were doing."

Members of Topeka's Islamic community were absent from the event. Hazim said that was by design.

Hazim learned Friday morning of Westboro Baptist's plans to burn the Quran. He asked local Muslims to stay away from Saturday's event.

"If we had 40 or 50 of us there and they started getting angry, things could get out of control," Hazim said. "So I told them to ignore it."

He noted Westboro Baptist planned to burn the Quran on its property, so there was "nothing we could do about it anyway."

[snip]

As scheduled, the Quran and American flag were burned at noon Saturday at Westboro Baptist. Phelps-Roper squirted additional lighter fluid on the Quran several times when the flames went out.

About three dozen people, mostly church members, were on hand inside the fenced-in area for the event, which lasted about 20 minutes. In addition to The Topeka Capital-Journal, three local television stations covered the event.

[Mozilla]

Westboro Baptist Church didn't get the attention they wanted. Bur while many in Topeka and The United States don't consider the Phelps to be newsworthy, others in far way places do. The Fed did bring a guy to monitor the event as the article also states.

[Julia H.]

Maybe people are finally figuring out that WBC’s “opinions” are manufactured to get as many people angry enough to do something even remotely lawsuit-worthy as possible.

Let them continue fading into irrelevance.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

“burning of a Quran and an American flag “

AND an American flag. That explains the lack of interest.

[kitkat]

***Shirley Phelps-Roper, of Westboro Baptist, announced earlier in the week plans to burn a Quran and an American flag — saying they were examples of “idols” people worship today.***

Shirley has a problem with loving our flag.