Florida Church's Qur'an Burning Programme Is of Unchristian, Immature and Foolhardy Mind

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Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre church
in Gainesville, Florida, USA
Photo courtesy: www.nydailynews.com

Reverend Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre church in Gainesville, Florida, wants to go ahead with his previously-announced "International Burn a Koran Day" on coming Saturday, September 11. He is also the author of the book Islam is of the Devil, informs the church's website www.doveworld.org.

This previously little-known Protestant church will commemorate the 9th anniversary of the Muslim terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York city by burning copies of the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims.

Rev. Jones says that Islam is a violent religion and people need to be aware of it. His church's website mentions five reasons to burn the Qur'an: 1) Shock the world into focus, 2) Get people to start asking hard questions, 3) Remind the world we still have freedom of speech, 4) Expose the truth, and 5) Force the world into action.

In the website, he also shirks the responsibility if any violence occurs because of his burning the Qur'an. He says: "Lets just make one thing clear. A small church, in a small town, down a back road, burning copies of its own books, on its own property, is not responsible for the violent actions anyone may take in retaliation to our protest....If violence happens in reaction to this, the violence was not caused by us, it has just been exposed."

U.S. State Department, important NATO officials, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, and many other religious leaders condemned the Qur'an burning programme, reports The Toronto Star. Although a small number of Americans supported this church's intended programme, majority of the Americans are against it.

Some Observations on the Qur'an Burning Programme

• In its website, the Dove World Outreach Center calls itself "a New Testament Church -- based on the Bible, the Word of God." In reality, the behaviour of the pastor and his church members is not only unchristian but also immature and foolhardy. The pastor and his followers are throwing Christ's teaching on loving one's neighbour or enemy out the window.
  
• What this attention-hungry pastor is doing is tantamount to inciting violence because he fully knows that his action will unleash violence in different parts of the Muslim world, especially against minority Christians.
• He is stooping himself lower than those radical Muslims who use the Qur'an as their inspiration for violence.
• Living in a safe cocoon in the U.S.A., Pastor Jones has no idea about how minority Christians live in majority Muslim countries. He has no sense of how his small act of hatred and vengeance may trigger violence against some innocent people there.
  
• Burning the Qur'an will have no effect on radical Muslims. Radicalism can be curtailed, if the U.S. and other countries in the West keeps active vigilance on mosques and religious centres that are used to preach hatred and instigate injustice and violence against others.
• If Rev. Jones carries out his programme, he has no right to claim himself to be a Christian pastor. This is the type of people who bring about shame on Christianity and pastorhood by giving vent to their own personal and self-serving motives.