That's right. International Burn A Koran Day. Over-enthusiastic, ignorant dullards everywhere Pastor Terry Jones invites you to burn a book which - whether right or not - means a lot to many people worldwide. Oh, breaking news, it's all off...
...the pathetic attempt at "lesson teaching" that one of the smallest religious groups were first all for has been cancelled for a reason too contrived, too clearly "that's what we'll blame", that I won't even go into it here. You can read the story (and the laughably dangerous tale's history) here. What I want to talk about is not how dangerous a plan the suggested would have been - useless, too, in getting their intended message across to the idiots they intended; the "Fundamentalist Muslims" associated with the atrocity that took place 9 years ago this coming Saturday - no, I want to talk about how that danger was nurtured and inflated by the world's media into what could have been a social and religious backlash similar to the nonsense surrounding the (mostly fabricated) Mohammed Cartoon outburst not so long ago.
You all know the story - it's been poured into our ears and eyes by news suppliers (from all bands of the credibility spectrum) for the last week. Some mentally unhinged religious freak in the good ol' U S of A, along with his flock of ever-prostrate human sheep, planned to hold an event where people are encouraged to burn the holy book of a "rival" religion in a veiled attack on the obviously-terrorists who they label "Fundamental Muslims" - for which, read "Muslims". Despite his "Church" (though what kind of god would want a church willing to put their "God-Fearing and obedient" mitts on this mess is beyond even the most broad-minded speculation) only having around 50 members, Pastor Jones (doesn't he sound like a character from Fireman Sam?) has succeeded in gaining hours and hours of airtime the world over. Now, call me a cynic, but how much of this do you think was about burning the book and how much was about getting his pathetic and frankly harmful "church" enough free advertising to net a couple more nutters to fill the pews?
If, when Pastor Whack-job announced his plans to ceremoniously destroy a book which he (hypocritically) sees as false prophecy and "the root of all evil" - going as far as adopting the laughably juvenile title "International Burn A Koran Day" (similar to "International Walk Like An Ostrich Day" presumably, in acceptance and credibility on an international scale) - if, when he suggested this Day, those around him had said "oh shut up you fucking header" and given him NO airtime, news coverage, interviews or soapboxes to preach his frighteningly misinterpreted "Christianity" from, then there would be no fear of religious/terrorist retaliation. There would be no gasping and opinionated tutting. There would be no half-hearted yet necessary back-pedalling. The world wouldn't care... Fifty people would have burned a book that, to them, means nothing at all. Those who CARE about the book would be none the wiser and the general public would be oblivious. The church would not gain any more members because there would be a deficit of "JOIN NOW" interviews available to the ignorant and intolerant.
What should have happened is - and I'm not justifying the burnings at all here - there should have been a small news story on local stations on Sunday saying "ignorant and unsupported Pastor Jones and his flock burned Koran yesterday in an unsuccessful and redundant attempt to "send a message" to Terrorists the world over" What a silly billy, eh? Bless 'im!"
Or maybe, if we lived in a rational and excitable world, thriving for knowledge, not elected ignorance, there would BE no religion; therefore no 9/11, no church to protest in this way and no fear of vengeance. Okay, some may argue that 9/11 would have still happened, for different or more complex reasons, but that's a discussion for another day. It happened because those involved BELIEVED they were doing the right thing... Not wanting to sound like an Al Qaeda sympathetic here, but can you really blame the unintelligent, ignorant followers of any religion, regardless of which, when something terrible and life-altering happens by their hand, because they misinterpreted a text written long ago, unedited or revised for a thousand years?
September 11th 2001 was a terrible day... and every day we pray to any God for the "souls lost" on that day is terrible too. I'm getting heated now, so will sign off. Sorry for the rant.
