By: A. B. Thomas
9-11 will always be remembered by the American media as a day of tragedy that will forever be milked for all its worth. 9-11 will always be remembered joyously by political hacks as the death squall of true democracy in American, and for the rest of the world it will be remembered as the day that the American public became their government’s puppets. The aero-attacks on the “Twin Towers” and the Pentagon were indeed horrific and sinister, but rather than being seen for what it was, it has become the excuse for tyranny at home and abroad in America. There is no great example of this than this year’s dramatic flavor of 9-11, courtesy of one Pastor Terry Jones out of Florida.
The catalyst for Pastor Jones and his congregation’s decision to burn the Qur’an – The building of a mosque, a place of worship for the Islamic faith two blocks from “Ground Zero”. Of course, two days before the scheduled destruction, the pastor issued a statement that said he had called off the burning of the Qur’an because the Muslim developers in New York had agreed not to build the mosque (which the developers denied). This puts the question forth: why is there an overt duality to America when it comes to acts of violence? A mosque, a place of worship and contemplation in the same area where a park now sits in replace of a building; in Baghdad, a place where multiple acts of violence occurred by American forces these sits an armed base. How many plains where American Calvary slew entire tribes of Native Americans or forced them into reservations are there that are concrete jungles, waste disposal plants or landfills? If the American media wishes to hammer home that the World Trade Center, in the scope of all things that encapsulate America, then take a wander over to “Youtube” and type in the search word “Jdam” as it applies to Afghanistan or Iraq, the joy in the soldiers voices as they turn buildings into rubble (including a mosque).
In the world there are two primary types of people: Those who wear their faith like a serape, and those who wield their faith like a scythe. Generally speaking, those who wield their faith do so as a desperate act to avoid having to question the beliefs they have about their faith. When a person lacks true faith, they resort to using the little faith that they do possess as an excuse for their actions they do not wish to accept personal responsibility for. Faith takes many forms, not just religious, yet people constantly step out of their accountability by using faith as a weapon or defensive shield against those who would wish to question.
Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center is one of those who wield their faith rather than wear it, to show how strong he feels about his faith. But does he really feel strongly about his faith? What does the burning of the Qur’an really accomplish? What does his proposed action really say about his devotion to his faith and his validity in providing leadership to a congregation? It is an enigma that a person who cannot offer anything but incongruence as he spouts scripture that he could even have a congregation. The probability of that high of a percentage of people with lower self image and esteem complexes than the Pastor must be astronomical.
If Pastor Jones would have bothered to read the Qur’an, which he proudly states that he hasn’t, he would understand the fraternalism of its contents with his thumping platform, the Bible. In the act of vandalizing the Qur’an, he too vandalizes what he professes to be his beliefs. It is an unveiling of how little respect he has for his own proclaimed beliefs.
It is a show how little American politicians, including the President, care for those who elected them once they are in power. There have been the ”tsk tsk” statements but it would appear unless a person speaks with a definite un-American accent, that is the extent of these politician’s concerns. It is curious that in the throes of mid-term elections in which Republicans and Democrats are constantly spewing out sound bites of the inaction of the other, yet fail to recognize the opportunity to exemplify that they are capable of action. Amend that, if Pastor Jones would have said, “I’m going to burn some James Brown CD’s” to protest Martin Luther King day, the politically correct machine would have been thrown into overdrive with a quick resolution and a court date for the good pastor under the American Hate Laws – which is wonder that there are such laws with the proliferation of racial profiling admissions from the various policing bodies in the United States. With the reaction from the Muslim world on Jones’s plan for the Qur’an, it makes one wonder why America’s pit-bull, Homeland Security, did not have the congregation rounded up as a terrorist threat, since the action surely would have provocated an intense reaction to all Americans abroad.
It would be heinous of anyone to call Pastor Jones a douche bag, and in a world filled with douche bags, though fortunately society has managed to corral them primarily in politics and education settings douche bags at least serve a sanitary purpose; could the same be said for the Pastor? Have no fear Pastor Jones, you are in America, the land where as long as you are a white Christian male, you can whistle your amendment rights from between your buttocks to your heart’s content and you’re just expressing yourself. Enjoy your spotlight today because your fifteen minutes have come to an end; let the contest for the next harbinger of hate takes their turn in the spotlight.
Editor’s note: We are aware that Pastor Jones called off the Book Burning. We also are aware that as of publishing the Westboro Baptist Church have joined the media circus. The message of this article is the important thing, the names we are sure could be reassigned infinitely.
Subversify Staff
Brilliant, if I could express myself, on this issue, this is exactly what I would have written .. you are so talented, congrats on a wonderful piece of writing ….
I wrote this on my blog in response to a silly woman who accused me of being a Muslim because I had the temerity to state that Islam, as a religion, wasn’t at war with anyone:
I’m a Muslim – that I be
A medieval moron, that is me
I cook up bombs on my balcony
And I hate everything that is free.
Inshallah, infidel, here I come
Beating on a worn-out drum
Allah’s name I always hum
I’ll deprive you of chewing gum.
An evildoer to the bone
Hit me with missile, bullet, drone
I’m the heavy breather on the phone
And I want to hear you moan.
With a turban round my head
I’ll be there under your bed
With a bomb shaped just like bread
I’ll blast you till you’re dead.
In the shadows, I’m Mac the Knife
I’ll gut you and I’ll cut your wife
I care nothing for my life
Just for evil, violence, strife.
I’ll destroy Britney and Mickey Mouse
And plant a nuke on your house
All because I have a grouse
Against you, and against your spouse.
Yeah, I’m a terrorist, that I be
Hating you, and your free country
An Islamofascist, don’t you see
And on my way to destroy thee.
Oh, by the way, Jones has called off the calling off of the book burning. Maybe by the time you read this he’s called off the calling off of the calling off too. Or maybe he’s called off the calling off of…the hell with it.
These bloody people make my brain ache.
Thanks, Rich!
Yes, the good Pastor is still not saying yea or nay on whether he’ll see through on his proclamation of burning copies of the Qur’an, though I thought that it was funny that in a news story his son was attempting to explain his father’s action all week as a ‘mental issue’. The crux of the matter is that it purely a self designed torture for the American psyche, encouraged by mainstream media’s need to over exploit tragedy. Is it a horrible thing to have happened? Yes. Were the attacks Islam’s assault on America? No. It was a coordinated group who happened to be Muslim. An Islamic community center isn’t a training ground for militants, unless the investors happen to be run by the CIA, yet on the news stories you have fire fighters and EMT’s aghast that Muslims would dare put something so close to “ground zero”. Religion is political, faith is not. You cannot protest something that your own government is doing in other countries, it is far too hypocritical of a statement.
As for Westboro, what a pathetic display they are. A couple of years ago they made a large stink about coming up to my neck of the woods because of a play was going to be presented on the vicious attack of a gay man because he was gay. They felt that this kind of thing was an “aberration of God”, though (a) they are not Albertan, nor Canadian (b) they quote from the Bible verses that have no application to the issue of whether homosexuality is wrong or not – though get really angry when one points out that according to their Bible, Adam lay with all sorts of different animals without being satisfied, so God created Eve – which then it would be that the bestiality donkey show I saw just outside of Cancun years ago is not. I know the donkey looked happy, the woman, not so much, but anything to be in show biz.
What it comes down to is international notoriety for Westboro and Jones; they have a delusion that somehow they matter, which just isn’t the case. They get the media attention and then don’t know what to do with it. The problem is that in this case, Americans don’t wish to see the real villains involved in 9-11 because the image that would appear would point out that for the most part, it is a mirror not a two-way pane of glass.
By the way Bill, excellent bit of prose!
Hi billiant page I want to read more about this soon…
It’s difficult to take Paster Terry Jones all that seriously, not least because of that unfortunate resemblance to The Beverly Hillbillies’ Jed Clampett!
Oh, listen, Muslim brethren and sistren, if there is such a word, and listen well;
I, speak to you as an atheist, who believes as little in Allah as he believes in any other divinity, unless the laws of Science be themselves such;
But hearken unto me, for though I bring you tidings of no great joy, I do bring you a little advice.
Now, you are aware that there is a man, not a very intelligent man, who is a pastor of a minuscule church; and that he does intend to burn the Quran as some kind of deliberate and wanton attempt to insult your religion. That he has already disavowed his withdrawal of his decision to burn the book is neither here nor there. What he says now, he may change tomorrow, and in any case there are others to follow him.
Furthermore, you are aware that this man is merely a vanguard of an anti-Muslim frenzy sweeping immense parts of the world today, including among nations and peoples who will not admit to their anti-Islamic bias.
Therefore, this is what I suggest to you, in the face of what I admit to be open and deliberate provocation meant to be nothing but open and deliberate provocation intended to rub your face in the dirt:
Ignore it.
Why do I say this to you?
If I were a Muslim, I would think of this:
Let me grant, for the sake of argument, that the Quran is a book, filled with the revelations of Allah. But, as a Muslim, I should remember that it is also only a book. It was printed on paper bought from commercial paper mills, with ink bought from commercial suppliers, on presses run for profit by commercial printers. In other words, what these morons are burning is a collection of sheets of printed paper, which they self-admittedly never have read. It’s like the dog chewing up the homework.
In other words, the burning of a copy of a book does nothing, whatsoever, to impugn God’s word, if we grant that both God and His word exists.
Then, there is the simple point that this is a provocation. When someone makes a provocation, he or she intends it to achieve something beneficial to him or her, and by definition, harmful to you. Therefore, by ignoring the provocation, you stymie his or her plans.
Like, for instance, as we’ve just been talking about, there’s this worldwide wave of anti-Islamism going on. There are literally hundreds of millions of people who already hate and fear Muslims, and are just waiting for another reason to hate and fear them. Besides, and this is important, guess what?
The campaign, totally illegitimate, to burn the Quran is now sought to be inextricably linked to the completely legitimate building of a community centre at Park 51 – the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque” – and it is funded by the same people as those who fund organisations whose only purpose is to advance the interests of the Zionazi pseudostate in the United States.
By reacting violently, therefore, you will only play into their hands.
Sometimes, in order to win a war, a small battle has to be sacrificed, pinpricks ignored.
After all, in the face-off with the Evil Empire, time is on your side.
Of course, it is I, an admitted atheist, who denies the existence of Allah and by extension the divinity of the Prophet Muhammad, who says this. So you are free to ignore me.
But think for a moment about what I said.
[quote=A.B. Thomas]With the reaction from the Muslim world on Jones’s plan for the Qur’an, it makes one wonder why America’s pit-bull, Homeland Security, did not have the congregation rounded up as a terrorist threat, since the action surely would have provocated an intense reaction to all Americans abroad.[/quote]
I’ll tell why right now – the purpose of “homeland security” isn’t actually to stop what people think of as “terrorism:” it’s essentially a proto-gestapo set up for the purpose of rounding up social dissidents under the guise of stopping “terrorism.” They will do nothing to hate-mongers like this lunatic preacher because he’s doing so much of their own for them by redirecting the anger of the masses away from the political class towards some other entity (Muslims in this case), effectively preventing the outraged public from becoming a viable threat to the corrupt government that now controls Washington.
The fact of the matter is this – the political class *needs* bastards like this guy just to continue their own existence: so long as the masses are turning on each other and laying blame at the feet of people who have nothing to do with the rot and decay society is undergoing, the establishment can keep looting what’s left of this nation’s wealth with impugnity. If you don’t believe me, look up the events that transpired in the waning years of the Roman empire – this whole Christian vs. Muslim fiasco is just the Christain vs. Pagan mentallity of the period repeated once more.
I’ve seen this film before and it does not end well for those still on board society’s boat when it sinks – if you value your own lives, you will have an exit ready for you when shit hits the fan…
I weighed-in with my own two-cents on this farce, and while I’ll not repeat myself here, I’ll make this observation:
This is what you get when there are too goddamned many reporters and not enough news. – you get a Hooterville,Florida ‘pastor’ and a churchfull of mouth-breathers on prime-time TV, while the media pees all over themselves to give him a microphone.
Any questions?
-W
In all honesty if someone were to burn James Brown CD’s on MLK Jr. day if anyone raised their head at all it would be the Green squad in regards to the air quality. We are terribly jaded about burning stuff in general.
Which is why the blame for all this can be lain sqarely on the media. People all over the country rant stupid shit all the time. This guy merited no notice however people anxious to stir the pot got in there and filmed him. There have to be at least 12 of these guys in every town saying the same thing and making the same threats, the difference is somehow this guy got behind a camera and the shark attack began.
In addition I don’t think anyone would argue that this guy is a huge douche but is it any less douchy that some Muslims overseas rushed out in retaliation to burn shit just at the promise of a Qur’an burning?
Part of me feels that all of us giving the slightest attention to this bears a bit of the blame.
great blog thank you
@ Christopher – Appreciate your thoughts, and from my standpoint, partially inline with my own. The focus of 9-11 is indeed purposely misdirected.
@ Will – It worries me at any point we seem to have similar views, the next day I do a thorough inspection of the shop to ensure that all the chemicals are tightly sealed!
@Grainne, I thought about not writing anything on this but two things changed my mind: First was a phone call from my father who was getting ready to go see my brother’s family for their Ede celebration (yes, my brother is Muslim – my sister and my father are Christian, and so from a family point of view, they are united in at least concept: I will be going to hell). There are several times a year that each side travels to the other’s church or mosque to attend some sort of event, this includes extended family, where the focus is not on the differences but rather on learning about the similarities. The American media focuses far too much on the differences rather than the similarities, and this is what provokes such stupid-ass actions such as Jones or Westboro’s.
The second was a news story accompanying the good Pastors, of a protest in New York where the comments were “It’s disrespectful to think about putting that thing here, people need to be aware of what these people are about” and “They should just go home and leave America to Americans” – these weren’t the so called “uneducated”, these were men and women who worked in the fire department and emergency response teams. These folks are supposed to be “professionals”, yet I had to wonder if the Islamic centre was built and there was a case of arson, would these ‘professionals’ be as quick to respond as if it were a Christian based centre? There is a large skewing of the reality of 9-11, perpetuated by the mainstream media for their little sound bites and top story coverage. Jones shouldn’t had any coverage, and in truth, I signed onto the crap to call attention to the crap, making me no better than the crap. Fortunately, because I wrote this, whenever I see Jones I will think of Jed Clampett – it’s too bad his daughter doesn’t look like Ellie-Mae or I might have the gumption to find me some of that there Flooridah realigion, well, for a night in a cheap motel, at any rate.
@Davenycity – Thanks!
Why, of course you’ll be going to hell, like all us subversives. Lucifer was a subversive, you know.
See you there.
Jesus and Muhammed were Subversive too. I’d say there’s a 50/50 chance for A.B.
If it’s any consolation, I must humbly agree with all of you regarding the muslim retaliation towards such a miniscule threat. Now I would probably be considered a traitor to some muslim brethren out there for my feelings about this matter being that I am a muslim woman. However, we as muslims are advised to burn anything containing Allah’s name on it such as paper, including perhaps a deteriorated Quran for the sole purpose of not throwing it in the garbage or subjecting it to scenarios of soiled imposition. The Caliph Uthman ordered that all fragments, incompletions, and erroneous copies of the Quran be burnt.
Now I understand that the pastor’s intention of burning the Quran was not to protect it. But who’s to stop someone from burning a Quran in the privacy of their own home? We should worry about our own actions rather than pour gasoline on the flame of some attention whore.