Republican Leadership On Book Burning: No Comment
When even Gen. David Petraeus and Gen. Ray Odierno have come out and spoken against this wingnut pastor Terry Jones, Keith asks, where is the Republican leadership in speaking out against it? This guy is obviously some nutcase who is enjoying all of
US fundamentalist pastor Terry Jones, who wants to burn copies of the Koran on Sept. 11, ran a church in the western German city of Cologne until last year when members of the congregation expelled him. Former members have spoken of his hate-filled sermons and insistence on "blind obedience."
Our new team member Matt Osborne made a really great point that he shared with our group today. Islamophobia is the new colored drinking fountain and Pam Geller has allowed the likes of Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich and their cohorts protesting there to set up ground zero as a "a whites-only drinking fountain". I'd say that sums up the hatred they're spreading pretty well.
I'm sick and tired of the constant drumbeat of hatred coming from these people, dressed up as patriotism. It's disgusting and tiresome and it feeds into people like this wingnut pastor with all of fifty or so followers getting this much attention from the media. If this guy goes through with this, I hope it falls under Florida's hate crime laws and he's arrested and that's the last we hear of him. You should not be allowed to burn the Quran any more than you should be allowed to go burn a cross on someone's lawn. It's meant to intimidate and to drive hatred and violence towards a particular religious group and it's just dead wrong.
If there's some truth to this diary at Daily KOS, the guy has bigger problems than just possibly being arrested for a hate crime. They've accused him of drumming up anti-Muslim hatred to run a money laundering operation.
WARNING: Money-launderers using muslims as red herrings.
If there's some truth to this it would also be nice to see the media following up on it since they've given this guy so much coverage already. I'm not an investigative reporter where I've got the time or resources to look into their accusations but I hope the ones actually being paid to do that sort of thing do, and do their jobs rather than just giving him air time to stir the pot and help the GOP stir up racial and religious resentment, thus motivating their angry, scared white base and giving them a reason to come out and vote in the mid-terms.