Posted on 09/07/2010 7:40:54 PM PDT by kristinn
Obama State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said on Tuesday that the planned protest by an obscure Florida Christian church in which Korans will be burned as "un-American" and "consistent" with the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by the Muslim group known as al Qaeda that murdered nearly 3,000 Americans and foreign nationals that day.
Crowley was commenting on plans by the fifty-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainseville, Florida, to mark the ninth anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday by burning around 200 Korans on the church's property.
According to the State Department transcript of Tuesday's briefing, Crowley equated the protest burning of the Koran to the gruesome, fiery deaths of thousands of innocents at the hands of Muslim terrorists as he sought to bring public pressure on the church to cancel the protest:
"We hope that between now and Saturday, therell be a range of voices across America that make clear to this community that this is not the way for us to commemorate 9/11. In fact, it is consistent with the radicals and bigot with those bigots who attacked us on 9/11."
The press corps at the briefing did not question Crowley about his equating burning the Koran with the 9/11 attacks. However, they did press him on the First Amendment rights of the church.
Crowley acknowledged those rights, but only as a formality before rhetorically bludgeoning the church and its pastor, Terry Jones, for the planned protest. In addition to equating the church with al Qaeda, Crowley called the protest "un-American", even as he acknowledged that he would not call burning the American flag un-American.
The Obama administration had no problems last year letting it be known that it appeased Muslims by burning Christian Bibles brought to Afghanistan by evangelicals. However, when it comes to the Koran being burned, the Obama administration has used its unique position to bring the weight of the government down on the church to defend Islam.
The White House, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the State Department have all used the most harsh and menacing language in an effort to intimidate the church from going through with the protest.
Spokesmen for the church said Tuesday they still plan to burn the Koran on Saturday. Pastor Jones said he has taken to carrying a firearm after receiving more than one hundred death threats.
>I used to believe liberals were well intentioned. I no longer do.
you & me both, brother.
It may take some doing, but the next president needs to fire the entire staff of the State Department and purge out all the Islamophiles, anti-Semites, and anti-Americans. No previous administration has sought to do this. This goes back to the days of FDR and perhaps beyond.
Does he feel the same way about the bible burnings they’ve had?
“Crowley was commenting on plans by the fifty-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainseville, Florida”
What is this person thinking? The more they raise a fuss the worse they make the situation. If the administration thinks this is such a bad thing, then they should ignore it and stop giving it press. This is a FIFTY member group. This isn’t exactly high profile. The administration and General Petraus had given this group status by acknowledging them. And a ridiculous comparison between burning books verses killing innocent people is over the top.
I think it foolish to burn Korans...it doesn’t make you look that smart. However, if the administration trys to stop them...they are just as wrong themselves. There is just way too much wrong thinking going around here.
and from Hillary’s speech today.
We sit down together for this meal on a day when the news is carrying reports that a pastor down in Gainesville, Florida plans to burn the Holy Quran on September 11th. I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths, from evangelical Christians to Jewish rabbis, as well as secular U.S. leaders and opinion-makers. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. Many of you know that in 1790, George Washington wrote to a synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, that this country will give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.
It's obvious he's throwing November on purpose.
Perhaps everyone should chip in and burn a quran on the 11th.
Another clinging to our guns and bibles, suing Arizona, stupid cops arresting gates moment. Bambi will be 60% strongly disapproving before we know it.
No comparison.
The US State Dept HATES America.
Crowley must resign or be fired.
True, except for the 3,000 dead people.
Funny but I would bet their were more then a few Koran inside the WTC that burned on 9/11 along with Bibles, Torah, and 3000+ people
Some other posters think that Obama has masterminded this and is fueling the fire so to speak, that most of the loudest vocal derogatory hate filled rhetoric is paid Obama supporters.
And they are manipulating the Black Panthers into a whitey redneck cracker big gun shootout at OK corral event just so he has the spark to light the flame for a nationwide martial law.
I would avoid the church in Gainsville but I would organize a nationwide day of Patriotic Fire by burning a Koran day.
Islam shows its weakness when it meets truly dedicated defiance, even if its considered childish, I’m sure the 300 Spartans weren’t being total gentlemen when they decided to stand in the way of Xerxes.
Obama thinks he is a reincarnated Xerxes, above mortal men and beyond any impeachment which technically he is. When I came home from a day at work I was amazed at the amount of support and the courageous posters here at FR that have decided that they too will be Spartans.
To be defiant. To be American.
It would be amusing if they did. Alachua County is the only county in Florida that McGovern carried. I am really curious now as to who will be there and what all they will do. The sign said 6-9 pm. They will be given some kind of ticket I hear for burning without a permit.
I probably won’t but a part of me wants to go to Borders, buy a Koran, and burn it in my chiminea on my deck this Saturday. I’m really getting tired of this cr*p.
Doing this could be considered your constitutional expression of free speech, religion, and association. I could think of no other cult that deserves no respect more than Islam.
My suggestion is not to burn them, but to smoke them thoroughly over a good old-fashioned pork spare rib barbecue.
Then, mail them out to worthy recipients all over the muslim world.
They had a bunch of “interfaith christians” (read libs) on TV and one who might have been a bishop said that “this isn’t what our country was founded on, it was founded on love.” What a load of you know what!!!!
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