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I am not a fan of burning books. I don’t even like dog-earring pages. For me, books are something special, something to be cared for, and loved. Not every book contains words that I personally love, but a book contains information, of some sort, and to destroy information because you don’t agree with it or even despise it, accomplishes exactly nothing.
Books that contain words and stories that are abhorrent and despicable can still be useful, if only to help us learn about beliefs that are foreign to us and noxious to us. “Knowledge is power,” even when it is knowledge of the words written in Mein Kampf or the Koran.
So I can’t say that I agree with the planned Koran-burning that the Dove World Outreach Center down in Florida are having this Saturday, to commemorate the anniversary of the heinous attack on America by radical jihadists. I also can’t say that I blame them for wanting to.
But…I just can’t picture myself tossing a book into the fire. (I did burn my nursing cap a long time ago, when I graduated nursing school and knew I wouldn’t ever work anywhere that required one. After all, the men in my class hadn’t had to wear one.)
I am not saying that we need to be concerned about the feelings of people who don’t give a rip about the feelings of 70% of Americans who don’t want a mosque built practically on the burial ground of almost 3000 innocents, killed by people who did it in the name of ‘Islam.’ I don’t care about their feelings, I really don’t.
It’s not for ‘reasonableness,’ or ‘being sensitive,’ or ‘keeping lines of communication open‘ that I am concerned about. Appeasement and negotiating is a waste of time with those who are determined to kill us.
I do care, though, about productivity. I care about effectiveness, and wise strategies in this deadly conflict of cultures. I think it would be more effective for the pastor of the church and his 50 congregants to take those Korans and read them, equip themselves with what it says, so that they can be more effective in countering it whenever they have the opportunity. Nothing destroys credibility quicker than to show that you really don’t know what you’re talking about in a discussion or argument.
Have I read the Koran? No. I don’t intend to, I have way too much to do, and my to-do reading list is already two pages long. I also don’t pretend to be an expert on it, will freely admit that I haven’t read it, but make my assessments on Islam based on what I hear Muslim spokespeople say, and on videos I see and news I hear of women being stoned to death, and journalists being beheaded. That’s all I really need to know.
So, no, I haven’t read it. But I don’t intend to burn it either.
Sarah Palin weighs in, Glenn Beck too.
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This is a classic illustration of the whole GZM issue. Yes, this pastor has the right to burn these books – that doesn’t make it the right thing to do.
What is interesting is that Muslims are burning American Flags in protest of the proposed Koran burning… Yet they can’t see the same issue at the heart of the GZM situation.
Which sets my blood to boiling. We are expected to make concessions for Muslims for their particular sensitivities but they never, it seems, return the favor.
They don’t want us to burn the Koran; stop burning our Flag. It’s not a tit-for-tat situation but the message is there.
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