Koran Burning: A Choice Between Two Ugly Realities

There’s no good reason to burn a Koran.  It’s provocative and insulting to Muslims.  Appropriately, the plans of a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, to burn Korans on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks have elicited criticism from liberals and conservatives alike.

Earlier this week, President Obama and General David Petraeus voiced the most-ranking opposition to the pastor’s plans.  Obama made a plea for religious tolerance and asked Jones to refrain from doing it.  Meanwhile, fearing the backlash abroad, Petraeus warned that the act could put American military lives in danger.

A good case has been made for Jones to heed their advice.  Yet, there are also negative consequences if the pastor yields to the mounting pressure to back off.

One of the Danish cartoons that set off riots in the Muslim world.

What precedent does this set if we scuttle our First Amendment freedom of speech in order to accommodate the sensitivities of Muslims?  Is Islam beyond criticism?  Is it off-limits to offend Muslims?  The Koran burning episode is merely the latest manifestation of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.

In September 2005, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published twelve editorial cartoons, most of which depicted the Prophet Muhammed.  Muslim critics described the cartoons as racist and the controversy quickly erupted into violence across the Muslim world.  All told, the cartoons and subsequent violence led to more than 100 deaths.

Yet, this isn’t the only case of freedom of expression colliding with strict Islamic law.  Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh was assassinated in 2004 by a Muslim man after Van Gogh completed a 10-minute film titled, Submission.  Van Gogh’s crime?  He spoke out against the violence against women in some Islamic societies.

Closer to home, Comedy Central decided to censor a South Park episode that alluded provocatively to the Prophet Muhammed.  But the network has had no qualms allowing the program to portray Jesus in a crude manner.  Nor do Americans really care!  It’s distasteful, in my opinion, but few would challenge their constitutional rights.

'Piss Christ' by Andres Serrano

Remember Piss Christ?  In 1987, photographer Andres Serrano placed a crucifix in a glass of his own urine and took a photograph of it.  In 1989, Serrano even received $15,000 for his ‘work of art’ from the taxpayer-funded National Endowment for the Arts.

Or how about when Muslim extremists waged attacks in 2007 on Christians in Gaza City?  Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza’s Latin Church, told the Jerusalem Post that Muslim gunmen used rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the church and the school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.

Did any so-called fundamentalist Christians blow themselves up in American cities as a result?  Of course not!

But that’s what President Obama speculates might happen among Muslims over the burning of a few Korans.  On Good Morning America, he said:

You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan.  This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.

To be clear, I understand the national security challenges and why General Petraeus spoke up on the matter.  But exporting these universal rights abroad was among the initial aims of our intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The administration’s remarks leave one to question the clarity of our purpose in the Middle East.

Ultimately, this pastor’s senseless quest shouldn’t have been taken at all.  But there is no doubt that we are left with an unwinnable situation with no way to escape unscathed.