RUTHFULLY YOURS

In this supposedly enlightened, modern world of ours, many people take a perverse pride in mocking those symbols and beliefs that other people hold dear. Judaism and Christianity are among the most popular targets of today’s iconoclasts, embodied in the stupidity of Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ ^[1]” through the deadly serious Zionist conspiracy theories that permeate the highest levels of the United Nations. Yet, somehow Jews and Christians endure these slings and arrows, remaining confident and secure in their faith in spite of the insults. At the other end of the spectrum, we have one major religion in the world so terribly insecure about itself that it cannot bear the slightest provocation, no matter how obscure or tenuous the source is. Rather than holding that religion – Islam – accountable for maintaining a skin so thin that it encroaches upon the freedoms it supposedly hold so dear, the Left continues to enable a hyper-sensitive Muslim worldview. According to the Left, Muslims are a particularly aggrieved part of the victim class and thus the regular rules of public discourse do not apply when they express their grievances. History tells us that leftists aren’t doing anyone any good, not Muslims and certainly not the civilized world, by according Islam this special status.

The firestorm of controversy that surrounded the ultimately unrealized plans of an obscure Florida pastor to burn a few copies of the Qur’an was truly remarkable, without any analog in the modern world. If Terry Jones had announced an intention to put any other book in the world to the torch, no one would have taken any notice, much less threatened to set off a firestorm of righteous indignation. The fact that this one book, and only this book, could provoke such a ludicrously disproportionate reaction ought to tell us much more about the people who believe in that book than it does about the people who question its authenticity and authority. Bible burnings, for example, are not uncommon. Last year an equally obscure preacher in North Carolina announced his intention to burn copies of the Christian Holy Book ^[2] on Halloween. The United States has officially confiscated and burned Bibles in Afghanistan ^[3]. Such incidents didn’t result in Christians storming the streets, howling in outrage or threatening violence. Such plans were instead met with a shrug, because the faithful were confident enough to say that such misguided actions ultimately don’t matter.

Yet, the very idea that one man could possibly desecrate the Qur’an was enough to get the State Department, the commanding General in Afghanistan and the President of the United States involved. The mainstream media jumped on the bandwagon as well, warning the populace of all the terrible things that were sure to happen if Jones went through with his plans. The irony is that Islamic inspired violence is a given, whether a preacher with bad facial hair actually burns copies of the Qur’an or not. No matter, for in the mainstream media’s eyes the damage has already been done. Islamic violence is always our fault according to the Left and this latest non-incident has become further proof that it is right. Islam doesn’t need reform, the Left assures us, our attitude towards the religion is the real problem.

As an example, consider the ongoing sectarian clash in the Kashmir region of India. Hindus and Muslims have been escalating levels of violence in the disputed Himalayan region for three months now, with Muslims pushing for autonomy and Hindus looking to protect Indian sovereignty. Yet, according to a story published ^[4] in the New York Times on Monday, Terry Jones is ultimately to blame for exasperating the bloodshed. “[S]tate authorities sought to differentiate the new violence as separate from the other protests, linking it to the reports of the desecrated Koran. Indian authorities had fretted over the planned Sept. 11 burning of a Koran by a Florida pastor, Terry Jones,” the Times’ Jim Yardley wrote.

The Qur’an burning didn’t happen. Not that it should matter. Members of any other religion in the world would dismiss plans to burn their holy book as the unimportant, deluded ravings of an obscure individual who represents nothing more than himself. Muslims and their leftist allies, on the other hand, have managed to elevate Terry Jones into something he never was and never should have been: a global figure who wields immense power. The fact that something like this could occur is not a tribute to Jones’ message and charisma, it’s rather proof of just how powerfully Islamic insecurities influence the West, and particularly the Left.

Of the thirty recognized on-going global conflicts raging today, twenty-eight of them involve Islam in some shape or form. That was the case before Terry Jones got his fifteen minutes of fame and will continue to be so long after Jones disappears into the footnotes of history. Islam continues to be its own worst enemy and the Left, particularly the mainstream media, can’t seem to stop enabling this most insecure of the world’s religions.