Posted on 04/03/2011 9:02:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Terry Jones burned a Koran, and an Afghan mob killed at least seven UN personnel. Connected? Surely, but that hardly makes Jones responsible for murder, he told ABC News in a Nightline interview last night:
CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO OF TERRY JONES' STATEMENT
Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who oversaw the burning of a Koran last month, said he did not feel responsible for the violent protest at a United Nations compound in Afghanistan today that left at least 11 dead. Instead, he said the violence proved his point.
“We wanted to raise awareness of this dangerous religion and dangerous element,” Jones said. “I think [today's attack] proves that there is a radical element of Islam.”
As for the 11 dead, which included seven U.N. staffers and guards, Jones told “Nightline” anchor Bill Weir, “We do not feel responsible, no.”
Interestingly, I had a conversation about this with a family member yesterday. While I agreed that Jones was a publicity hound looking for attention, that doesn’t make him responsible for murder. The only people responsible for murders are those who commit them, and those who specifically incite them to kill. Any other position eventually wipes out free speech, free religious practice, and freedom altogether. If we held others responsible for the acts of every nutcase whose violent reactions may or may not have connections to something they did or said, we would have no speech at all — a point we made repeatedly during the Left’s Loughner frenzy, which they conveniently forgot during the Madison protests.
James Joyner warns today about acknowledging the “murderer’s veto”:
Should Jones have burned the Koran? No. But not because doing so might incite some evil people halfway around the world to commit atrocities against innocents. Rather, he shouldn’t have done it was needlessly hurtful without adding any value to the debate. Indeed, aside from generating publicity for himself, he’s likely generated sympathy for Islam and disdain for churches of his ilk.
But Jones is not the slightest bit culpable for the actions of others. Yes, he was warned that violence might ensue. But we’re not responsible for the evil, illegal actions others might take in response to our freely expressing our thoughts. Even if they’re ill-informed, half baked, bigoted thoughts. If we allow the possible reaction of the most dogmatic, evil people who might hear the message to govern our expression, we don’t have freedom at all. It’s worse than a heckler’s veto; it’s a murderer’s veto.
The responsibility for these murders lie with the people who committed them, just as with the murders and violence following the publication of the editorial cartoons in Denmark a few years ago.
CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO OF TERRY JONES' STATEMENT
If nothing else we should pay close attention to just how close some of these countries that we are so invested in are so close to lawlessness that even the slightest of news stories can set them off into a lawlessness tirade that would be unparalleled in the US.(except for our union members of course)
If we bow our heads and allow Islam to go unchallenged because they will go off we have already lost, he did not cause this and is the facts were to be told most Americans would agree with Him...It is time to face this head on before they proliferate us so heavily we cannot reverse it..To hell with Islam, Its lying pervert Prophet and the people that follow it...
We are dealing with a worldwide, brainwashed cult that is anything but a religion.
An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.
Gandhi
Islam is the religion of evil. Muslims do not seek nor want peace.
Actually, people like you - who promote and apologize for muslims shredding your constitution - are promoting muslim genocide. The world will have to deal with both the muslims and their fellow travellers at some point down the road.
Jones is handing them an excuse on a silver platter. It is entirely possible that the people who have so far died as a result of his self-aggrandizing stunt would have otherwise died at an old age of natural causes. And for what? What purpose did it serve?
You left out the essential link:
The media who made sure it was known worldwide.
If they had not been complicit in getting the news out...
Really, let's take another look. Who made the killers go kill people? That was their decision, right?
There is no shortage of people in history who have had more personal reasons to feel shat upon than those who killed people because an otherwise obscure person chose to burn a book.
I, for one am sick of the murderous temper tantrums of Islamists. If we give in, we will be in the same straits as a mother who lets her two year old have fits and caves in to them.
Read up on wingless crickets. It is a perfect analogy for islam. Devour everything in sight, and when there is nothing left to devour, they devour themselves. They exist for NO other reason.
He is 100% correct. If you accept “responsibility” for mass murder - as a response to burning a religious book on the other side of the world - we are lost.
You are giving into the insanity and intolerance. What will you do when murder is the response because you and your family attend a church which does not recognize Muhammed?
Wake up folks. Burning a Koran is impolite. Murder is murder.
Why? For doing what is allowed and legal? Are Americans going to be this easily cowed by threats from abroad?
Although I, personally, have no particular desire to burn a Koran, I can think of few better things to do with one. Flushing them only clogs the toilet.
OOoo bury your head and run, appeaser! Do you believe killing is an appropriate response to burning the Koran?
What purpose does islam serve? That is the question. Why does it exist?
Uh no.
Those that support and/or excuse the the Islamist need to be institutionalized, or either shot for treason. Sharia will destroy the remnants of the Constitution we still have.
I’m sorry but you are wrong. maybe I “know” taht by teaching my child to love Christ, a radical will kill someone in Afghanistan.
So now I will whisper my beliefs in private because of a murderer?
Never. I have zero interest in burning a Koran EXCEPT to stand up to these murderers if necessary. Get your head on straight before they cut it off.
that only applys if you don’t blind your enemy first.
Right. They are not mindless drones, they are thinking humans with the same capacity for thought and reason as any other.
They chose to be offended. They chose to be at the demonstration. They chose to act. And they chose to kill people who had nothing to do with burning a book. And so they did. The guilt is theirs.
Only one person gets to put words in my mouth...and that's me. Radical Islam is the greatest threat to the U.S. and western civilization that exists today. How you managed to extrapolate my condemnation of one renegade pastor into defending Islam is a tribute to your own imagination.
Exactly. What kind of religious person MURDERS innocent people over the burning of any book?
A prayer vigil. OK. Maybe a loud protest. OK. MURDER? In the name of God?
IF Islam makes all Korans in the world teh subject of murder then it is an absurd religion.
I’m sot saying all muslims believe this but any that do are enemies of civilization.
It says he values the Constitutional rights of US citizens over political correctness among barbarians overseas.
As a conservative, I place the responsibility on the people that are chopping off heads.
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