Terry Jones’ aborted Koran burning still being spun by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to whip up hatred and murder
We are still witnessing the consequences of Terry Jones’ proposed Qu’ran burning with violent protests across the Muslim world. Yesterday a Church in Pakistan was bombed, thirteen died in protests in Kashmir, a Christian School was torched in Srinagar, and three killed in protests in Afghanistan.
This is to highlight just a few incidences of many.
But is it any wonder when you have Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spouting this sort of inflammatory nonsense:
DAMASCUS, Syria — Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered a fiery address on Monday accusing the United States government of orchestrating desecrations of the Koran by right-wing American Christian groups last weekend, Iranian state news agencies reported.
The speech appeared to be part of an effort by Iran’s hard-line leaders to amplify Muslim outrage over scattered gestures to burn or tear pages of the Koran, in the wake of the threat — later withdrawn — by Terry Jones, a Florida pastor, to burn the Koran on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
In Tehran, about 1,000 protesters chanting “Death to America” and “U.S. pastor must be killed” clashed with the police and threw stones at the Swiss Embassy, Reuters reported. The Swiss have handled American interests in Iran ever since the United States severed diplomatic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The rhetoric has become so bad that India had to block Iranian TV in Kashmir:
After Iran’s state-owned Press TV ran reports about Koran desecrations in the United States, India blocked local cable operators from broadcasting the station in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where angry anti-American protests have taken place in recent days.
In his speech, Ayatollah Khamenei said “the leaders of the global arrogance” — a code for the United States among Iranian conservatives — had engineered the plot to desecrate the Koran, Press TV and other agencies reported. He added that “Zionist think tanks which hold the most influence in the United States government and its security and military organizations” were also involved.
Ayatollah Khamenei warned people not to believe that isolated right-wing American Christians were to blame, calling them “puppets” of the government. “This incident and previous incidents clearly show that what the global arrogance is attacking today is the foundation of Islam and the Holy Koran,” he said.
It beggars belief really, I’m speechless and frankly sick to my stomach. These people want to stir up violence and death at any cost and simply don’t care of the consequences.
Tags: Media, News, Religion Society
September 15th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
This illustrates two things:
- the foolishness of the ‘quran burning threat’
and
- the pre-disposition among muslims towards violence when faced with opposition to their religion of Islam.
In my humble opinion, the ‘pastor’ should have known better to than to promote this action, which can only lead to poor relations and at worst, vigilante attacks on Christians around the world. I am happy if the US has intervened to stop this stupidity, for the protection of vulnerable Christians around the world, particularly in places like Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia etc.
The violent reaction reminds me of the 200 people who were killed as a result of the Indian beauty contest some years ago, the violent reactions towards the mohammed cartoon and the reactions to the Pope’s statement taken from a 13Century text about Islam. Whilst most muslims do not react in violence, it has to be noted that there are always muslims that do react in violence at the slightest so called ‘provocation’. It underlines the nature of the text from which Islam derives, which in various circumstances, advocates violence as part of its code of living. Islam has never had a ‘reformation’ and the nature of the ‘perfectly preserved Quran, being the pure word of god’ means that it cannot have a reformation. The ‘spirit’ of the Quran includes some violent undertones and these are those which become activated in those who are inflamed with the spirit of Islam.
The pastor should stick to the Word of God, which tells us that we don’t ‘fight flesh and blood, but principalities and powers…’
We are in a spiritual warfare today, just as much as any time in history, perhaps more so. Christians must arm themselves with prayer and the Sword of the Spirit of God, not burning books, or attacking nations with bombs.
This kind of action does more harm than good.
September 17th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
It is depressing to see appeasement in action.
September 22nd, 2010 at 10:49 pm
See http://problemwithrelgion.blogspot.com/2010/09/in-response-to-pastor-jones-etc.html for my longwinded thoughts on the subject!
S.
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:29 pm
@Steven Underwood,
My argument is basically that these movements are reactions to Western Imperialism.
What a load of hate the West longwinded nonsense.
My argument is basically that these movements (the crusades) are reactions to islamic imperialism.
September 24th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Bless you Goy
I have commented on your insightful comments at the relevant page on my blog.
Here it is again just in case you don’t return to my blog to read (I wouldn’t blame you, it is a tedious read in places…)
“The Crusades occurred some 700-800 years before the events this essay deals with…
Nonsense you say…? I write only what research suggests is true… Certainly [the essay in question] is well researched and the sources I have used are reliable. If you can furnish your comment with valid academic references to contradict [it], then I might take your comments a little more seriously…
Given the sentence you have quoted is from the introduction to the essay, I’d suggest you read on.
But perhaps not as the case may be… Ignorance is bliss as they say!
I love the West, by the way – esp. liberal, secular, democracy (it’s come up with the goods of fair, equal societies with far more success than centuries of Christian, or any religious, including Islamic, rule than the secular, liberal democracies of northern Europe). You have to accept The West’s limitations and its hypocrisy otherwise you’re living in a self-delusion just as blinding (and foolish) as Islamic Fundamentalism.. This is not hatred it is merely pragmatism to examine some of the issues around the relationship between the West and the Islamic world. I invite you to find one word of hatred towards the West in the above – I doubt you will…
In my reply to Sue’s comment, above, I note how people often want simple answers to complex questions and issues. Both the West and the Islamic world have faults and errors, but I would much rather live in the West than the Islamic world. Yet the West’s hypocrisy is partly to blame for events such as 7/7 or 9/11 of that there is no doubt. Israel frequently breaks UN resolutions – and Saudi Arabia has a terrible record on human and women’s rights in particular. We didn’t see George W. and Tony Blair invade did we? The West is not a paragon of virtue and in some cases reaps what it sows. If you can’t accept that, then I’m afraid that is your problem!
Whatever
Regards:
S.”
September 24th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
@ Steven Underwood: Totally agree with you on the values of secularism. It’s a bit depressing to see what poor social lessons are taught by Christianity in the US (though to be fair it’s a horribly distorted version of the faith). There’s a direct link: the more religiosity in a state the higher the gun crime.
Look at that loony Tea Party candidate. An unmarried, childless abstinence teacher who believes in Creationism and thinks masturbation should be banned. My son and I ended up in fits trying to work out how she’d achieve this. Yet another scenario perfect for Monty Python…
I’m glad to live in a country where defending Creationism is the kiss of death to a politician. It’s becoming a Tea Party must have.
It’s interesting that Islamicists hate “the West” as a sort of all-in-one unit, when in fact we’re such a disparate bunch.
September 24th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
@Steven Underwood,
“Yet the West’s hypocrisy is partly to blame for events such as 7/7 or 9/11 of that there is no doubt.”
Despite the intricate academic liberal weave submission, terror and totalitarianism is what islam is all about, people like yourself try to wish this fact away by casting (pseudo) liberal spells and tales of revivalists, reformists and fundamentalists where there is only the soft jihad or hard jihad of the “community of the believers” (ummat al-mu’minin) – islam at war with anything that stands in its way.