This was the question asked recently in national media outlets in response to a Gainsville, Florida pastor's plan to burn the Koran on 9/11.
Simple - we live in America and if you can burn the US flag in protest you can certainly burn a book. It is exactly the same! Some hold the US flag to be sacred - some hate what it is only a symbol of. Some hold the koran to be sacred - some hate what it is a symbol of. So NO it is not a crime in any sense of the word.
Burning a Koran may not be a crime, but it may be stupid. The backlash could be worse than even the media or military predicts. Certainly "peaceful" Muslims around the world will protest and people will most likely die. They will burn US flags and chant "Death to Satan America"! But, that is not what worries me most.
Certainly this book burning cannot be compared in scope to the Night of Broken Glass, but the incremental loss of freedom our does hearken back to 1930s Germany. Gainsville police plan to step up a road block and check the ID of everyone who attends the Koran burning. Is no one outraged that the city of Gainsville plans to "set up a road block" and "check the license" of people who go to the event? Who is going to keep the list and what are they planning to do with it? What is happening to our freedom?
You may laugh now, but do not be surprised if one day you have a visit from the "Religious" division of the FBI, or an entirely new federal agency established to "promote tolerance" and fight against the "defamation of religion".
PREDICTION -- The US Congress will debate a bill on the Defamation of Religion that will seek to make it a "hate crime" to "defame" anyone's religion, religious symbols, sacred sites or founders.
I wish the pastor would just cancel the burning, but the firestorm has already started. He did not start the fire, it has always been burning.
Lastly, speaking of politics since when did our political leaders become so well versed in religion? Since when do our political leaders have the right to tell us what to believe and how to practice our faith?
Hillary Clinton has apparently become well versed in Islam and stands in the place of prophet as she make proclamation after proclamation. She condemned Jones' plan at a dinner Tuesday in observance of Iftar, the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "I am heartened by the clear, unequivocal condemnation of this disrespectful, disgraceful act that has come from American religious leaders of all faiths," she said. She has proclaimed that Islam is a religion of peace and that "terrorism has no religion".
Repeatedly we are told that we are "not in a religious war". This is a war against "terrorism". You know the thing that has "no religion". Am I stupid or something? As the Islamic terrorists blow themselves up they chant religious slogans, mobs chant "Death to Infidels", spontaneous parties broke out in the Islamic world to celebrate the Islamic victory on 9/11 and I could go on and on. But, it isn't religion?
The fact is that all leaders of all faiths have not condemned the Koran burning, and from the comments posted on many websites it seems that many (if not a majority of) Americans agree that Pastor Jones has every right to burn whatever book he wants to burn. Furthermore many Americans still believe that you can believe whatever you want to believe, and say whatever you want to say about religion. It is based on something we call the US Constitution.
What ever happened to the separation of Church and State?
www.righttobelieve.org
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