Man of the Cloth Without Any Common Sense

Hi Everyone: Last year, the Rev. Terry Jones, pastor of a very small church in Gainesville, Fla., threatened to burn a Quran, Islam's holy book. His threat made national news and notority to both the pastor and his small congregation of 50 +/- people. Islamic followers were outraged that a Reverend would consider burning a copy of another religions holy book. What was he thinking? Nothing good would come out of burning a Quran. Eventually he backed down and didn't burn a Quran. On March 20th, The Rev. did indeed burn a Quran. Under the First Amendment, the pastor had the right of free speech to burn a Quran. But just because he had the right to do it, should he have done it? What would the outcome be if he did burn a Quran? Would anyone really care? Well as it turned out, people did care and the outcome was not good. Muslims worldwide were outraged and in Afghanistan, it further strained relations with the West. Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai, condemned the burning four days after it happened. On Friday, according to Gannett, 11 people were killed, including 7 foreign U.N. workers, in a protest in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. On Saturday, in Kandahar, Afghans protested for a second day and nine more were killed. An unofficial total says that 20 people were killed due to the protests of the Quran burning. So there you have the jist of the story. The pastor's burning led to deaths of innocent people half a world away from Florida. There were repercussions. But the infamous pastor on Friday said that Islam and its followers were responsible for the killings. As for the actual killings, yes Afghans killed Afghans, but all they needed was a spark and the pastor gave it to them. Even though the pastor had the right of free speech to burn the Quran, common sense should have told him, don't do it. There were deadly consequences to his actions and he should be ashamed of himself. Can a pastor be defrocked? If yes, Terry Jones should be! Til next week, Peter