Katherine Blackford (FGCU): Florida minister plans to burn a Quran on Sept. 11th.

8. September 2010 by student.

In the news this week I have read that a Florida minister, Rev. Terry Jones,  in Gainesville plans on protesting Islam by burning copies of the Quran. Of course he has chosen the significant date of Sept. 11th to mark his self-declared “International Burn a Quran Day.” This act of protest will certainly infuriate the Islamic community as they view the Quran as their word of God, like most Americans view the Bible. This appears to be stunt to gain 15 minutes of fame by this church group of 50 people. They feel tried of extremists and believe we have taken too much from them and its time to take a stand and disrespect their one thing of value. Rev. Jones states, ” Instead of us backing down, maybe its time to stand up. Maybe it’s time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior.”

Being American of course we all have the right to free speech. I just wonder if these church members have thought out what their actions might incite across the world. Religious freedom and freedom of speech is a wonderful part of our lives in America. However, Muslin nations across the world do not share these freedoms and can not comprehend our rights to express ourselves. I believe that this will be seen as an attack on their God and they will feel that they must defend their God. This could spark violence everywhere American people are in these nations. Our troops could see new attacks and lives could be lost over this one stunt by a group of 50 people. It seems that no good will come from this act of burning the books and it only gives more reason for those who hate America to act with violence against us. I fear for our troops but I do understand our right to free speech. To me this is another example of how we can do something legally but really should we do it? Does it benefit our people and country? I feel mixed emotions about the whole thing and I just wonder if this event will spark more division in our country like the controversy of building a Mosque on Ground Zero?

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