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General Petraeus, correctly, does not think the smoke from burning Qurans in the spring smells like victory:"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Quran," said the statement issued by military commander Gen. David Petraeus and the top NATO civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill.Maybe because:
The Taliban said in a statement emailed to media outlets that the U.S. and other Western countries have wrongly excused the burning a Quran by the pastor of a Florida church on March 20 as freedom of speech and that Afghans "cannot accept this un-Islamic act."Neither US "hawks" or "doves" have anything to cheer about apropos of an "Afghan Spring" of violence by religious zealots there, as ignited by religious zealots here. Neither do General Petraeus or the population of Afghanistan. The only two gaining parties are the Taliban and "Pastor Terry Jones."
I've noticed that mainstream reports like this one in the New York Times bury the identity of the Quran desecrator way down in the column. Suppose Minister Farrakhan publicly roasted a Holy Bible during a Friday afternoon prayer meeting, and that it drove the "good Christian people" of Chicago, for instance, to firebomb Arab nation consulates (because they are perceived to be less dangerous to "good Christian people" than local Nation of Islam properties): does it seem likely that we'd have to wait until the 10th paragraph to find out the identify of this "individual in the United States"?
I have a lovely Pakistani friend. He's been in England 40 years,but speaks English only falteringly and dresses traditionally. He is a peaceful, loving man in his mid 60's yet he believes that the US is the devil incarnate and as a devote Muslim believes that a world wide Islamic caliphate is inevitable. According to him America is the cause of all the world's ill.
ReplyDeleteHe is, I repeat, a lovely gentle person who acknowledges that Islam, Judaism and Christianity share the same god. Yet, he sees only one outcome - all other religions will be blown away by a triumphant Islam. For him the end of days is near and he looks forward to that
Marginalia: this is a very interesting point. I can't speak directly to the case of the individual you are writing about, but my nation, my town, and even my workplace have an abundance of what you call lovely people. I had a vexing conversation with one Friday---a man I've known a long time. A gentle Christian man. A good father and husband. A competent engineer who has worked in the federal service for about 25 years. A man who gently and earnestly tried explaining to me why our government spends too much money on unemployed people, thereby giving them an incentive to stay on the dole; and why the government should stop spending money to help the poor and homeless because then private charities could jump right in and take over all those duties. I may write about this gentleman soon, because all the lovely people I know tend to be the bane of the US body politic.
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