A Tale of Two Terrorists

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


On Saturday, September 11, 2010, Florida con-artist and cult leader Terry Jones will lead the congregants of his Dove World Outreach Center, in a ritualistic bonfire fueled with copies of the Qu'ran (Koran), the Muslim Holy Scripture.  Jones, who admits to having never read the Qu'ran, has nonetheless labeled it as a body of lies. He also professes that the Muslim religion, Islam, is "of the devil."

The Jones stunt in Gainesville, Florida, will serve two purposes:  the feeding of his ego, and the fattening of his wallet.

Unfortunately, it will also mar the image of the United States of America as a land of religious toleration, and, as General David Petraeus pointed out earlier this week, it will serve to put thousands of deployed American troops in even greater danger than they were already facing.

America wasn't attacked by Islam on September 11, 2001.  Our country was the victim of a couple of dozen fanatical young men, almost all from Saudi Arabia - a long-term American ally.  Those young men were themselves under the influence of another cult leader - a man with hate in his heart - a man much like Terry Jones.   Osama bin Laden harangued his young followers, basically telling them that the United States was "of the devil."

Terry Jones runs a business in Florida that is staffed through free labor from members of his "church."  He formerly had a church near Cologne, Germany, until his congregation there wised up and ran him off.  Some of his former German church members describe him as "violent and fanatical," words that could also easily be used to describe Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden was hell-bent on attacking the United States, just as Terry Jones is hell-bent on attacking, or inflaming, the Islamic world.   Both sides want an all-out holy war.

But is a holy war in anyone's best interest, besides, of course, arms merchants and the usual gang of war profiteers?  Do we really want to re-live the Middle Ages?  Isn't it time we put all of the religious stupidity and hatred behind us and tried to live as a global family, a family based on love, peace, and ideals that Jesus and Mohammed could both embrace?

Maybe this Saturday would be a good day to open a copy of the Qu'ran and begin reading in an effort to find the common bonds of humanity that reach across borders and political ideologies.

I have a copy of the Qu'ran.  This Saturday while the terrorist, Terry Jones, is burning his, I will be reading mine.  That will be my bit for world peace and maintaining the American ideal of religious tolerance.  I wish I could do more.