Don’t you just love Pastor Terry Jones? He’s the ‘Christian’ minister from Florida who’s organised a Koran-burning session on 11 September. This is because nine years ago on that day a few dozen people, out of the billion and a half to whom the Koran is sacred, mounted their terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York.
You’d think that a Christian Minister would have read as far as the Gospel of St Matthew (it’s the first), though maybe he never made it as far as chapter 7, verse 12, where we’re told to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. I’m not sure how this fits in with burning other peoples’ holy book.
In any case, it isn’t clear to me that book-burning has a particularly attractive track record. Some fairly unappetising people have engaged in it.
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| Book burning: not the best of track records (Berlin, 10 May 1933) |
Of course, I suppose that all I’m doing is accusing him of double standards. But then all of us have double standards, don’t we? I know I do. For example, I’m a strong believer in tolerance towards religions and their spokespeople. But when I come across someone like Pastor Terry Jones, I start to feel an irresistible urge to put a stake in the ground and start piling brushwood around it.
Anyone got a match?
