Deadly venture of Pastor Terry Jones

by Dr. Yasin Kapadia
April 15, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1384/deadly-venture-of-pastor-terry-jones

Barely a week after nearly two dozen people were left dead by riots in Afghanistan following Florida Pastor Terry Jones' burning of a Quran, news comes from Britain that a candidate for political office in Wales was caught on camera burning a Quran as well.

Footage of Sion Owens, 40, from south Wales, allegedly showing him soaking the Quran in kerosene and setting fire to it was leaked to the Guardian newspaper, which wrote in a report of the incident that they immediately turned the video over to authorities.

Owens was then arrested for his alleged act within hours of police receiving the video, the Guardian reports. A second person, believed to have filmed the Quran burning, is also in police custody.

While there is no time stamp on the video, the five-minute footage is already believed to have been circulated to extremists, the Guardian reports. There is no evidence that Griffin was aware of the film.

In response to the incident, the British government said in a statement: "It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society. We equally condemn any attempts to create divisions between communities and are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion."

News of Owens' act comes fresh on the heels of riots that left at least 21 people dead in Afghanistan, as locals vented rage at Pastor Terry Jones' burning of a Quran at his Gainesville, Fla., church on March 20.

Jones was not only condemned widely by politicians and military leaders in America, but the U.K. banned Jones from ever entering their country for even threatening to do it. Commenting on this ban, a Home Office spokesman said, "The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded pastor Terry Jones from the UK."

"Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behaviour. Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good."

While the British government arrested a politician for burning Koran, United States is giving police protection to infamous Pastor Terry Jones, terming his actions as right accorded under Freedom of Expression.

There is already international outrage against the activities of Pastor Terry. Commenting on his actions, Christian Post columnist R. Albert Mohler, Jr wrote: "The case of Florida pastor Terry Jones presents Christians with an easy judgment but a difficult dilemma. This publicity-seeking pastor of a tiny congregation deserves to be condemned in every way for his act of putting the Qur'an "on trial" and for then burning a copy in a staged act of inflammatory showmanship. The judgment is the easy part. The difficult dimension of this is the fact that even our condemnation gives this pastor what he most desires - public attention."

He wrote, "Pastor Jones and his church incited a riot, and put human lives in jeopardy. There is no excuse for theatrics as a substitute for Gospel ministry."

Mr. Mohler wrote, "Christians are not called to burn the books of other religions. We are not called to publicity stunts that put lives at risk and subvert the preaching of the Gospel of Christ. Such actions deserve only the most severe condemnation. But even the condemnation serves their purpose - to gain publicity."

Irshad Manji wrote in Globe and Mail: "Which brings me back to Terry Jones. On his own website, he preaches: "We, as Americans, have the great gift of freedom. … We must strive to give that gift of freedom on to the next generation."

"If America's Faux Freedom Fighters want to drain the Koran of its ominous power, they should treat it as any other book, championing the right to circulate it openly while excoriating its content unapologetically. But in standing by as the Koran gets incinerated, they only reinforce its special aura. The essence of liberty, meanwhile, disappears in flames."

Frank Raj wrote in the Washington Times, "How the sublimely stated quest in Islam has been completely perverted as it is by Islamists today is hard to believe. I have no desire to participate in combative theology when Jesus didn't; the fact is there are still Christians today who believe slavery and apartheid can be justified by the scriptures. Racism endures because people pay lip service to their convictions, preferring to hang on to their white, black, or brown cultures.

"Noticeably Hinduism and Christianity do not have the inspiring meaning that Islam has. A derivative of the Arabic root "Salema," 'Islam' means peace, purity, submission and obedience to the will of God and obedience to His law.

You can't do much better than that.

"The origins of Christianity are suspect – it has dishonored and distorted the Bible's own affirmation of, "the name above all names." No suffix should have been permitted to the Savior's name; nobody knows who devised the term 'Christianity' to build a global religion with a mass following of two billion so called Christians. According to scholars 'Christian' was originally a derogatory term; Jesus did not choose the name for his followers."

"Historically 'Hindu,' is not a native word in any Indian language and pertains to geography more than a religion. It refers to the Bronze Age Indus Valley Civilization, the people who lived on the banks of the Indus River. In the medieval period Muslim invaders referred to India as Hindusthan, subsequently the British reinforced the term Hindu to differentiate between Muslims and Christians.

"However 'Hindutva' (Devanagari script) meaning "Hinduness", is an ideology forged by the Hindu nationalist leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (one of the accused in Gandhi's assasination) in his 1923 pamphlet entitled Hindutva: Who is a Hindu?

"In sharp contrast to Hinduism as a religion, Hindutva is a clearly distinguishable "political" ideology aiming to build a "national" identity. Clearly a fascist political movement, Hindutva has drawn much of its inspiration from European Fascism and German Nazism, modified to suit Indian conditions with some of its leaders openly admiring Hitler."

"Hindutva provides no role models worth following; it has Muslim and Christian blood on its hands. In the gospels there is a narrative where Jesus gives the name 'Boanerges' to the brothers James and John – it is made up of two Hebrew words meaning "sons of thunder," possibly highlighting their bold character. Much to the chagrin of the other apostles, they had earlier plainly told Jesus that one of them wanted to sit at his right hand and the other on the left, in his kingdom. The two brothers were also ready to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritan village that did not receive Jesus (Luke 9:54) on his way to Jerusalem.

"It is possible Terry Jones picked up only half the lesson from that incident when the Samaritans rejected Jesus. By burning the Quran, holy to over a billion people, he missed the most important part of Jesus' stern admonishment to the sons of thunder. By his actions Jones reveals the manner of his spirit against which Jesus warned. Jones has probably never lived in a neighborhood alongside Muslims. Our children grew up with Muslim and Hindu friends in India and the Middle East, building relationships they still cherish. Their faith was enhanced not diminished by the experience that our grandchildren now have. Should we teach them to love first or confuse them with theology? From our close Muslim neighbors we hope our grand kids see and learn and share a concern for modesty, understand the importance of prayer and comprehend that God is indeed one."

Paul Thomas wrote in The New Zealand Herald: "Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove World Outreach Church (congregation 30) in Gainesville, Florida, doesn't look like a terrorist mastermind.

"With his hound dog features and overgrown moustache, he looks more like a cross between actor Walter Matthau and Yosemite Sam, the bewhiskered and irascible Looney Tunes cartoon character. And little in Jones's background foreshadows his emergence as a Christian equivalent of the militant mullahs and incendiary imams preaching holy war.

"Kicked out of a church he formed in Cologne, Germany, for not keeping his messiah complex under control, Jones returned home as just another religious snake oil salesman with a fake degree looking for a cult to call his own. Yet within the past seven months this nonentity who speaks for practically no one has orchestrated two successful provocations, in the process demonstrating a sound grasp of terrorist theory and practice. His stunts have triggered violent, sometimes fatal disturbances in several countries, drawn condemnation from religious and political leaders around the world and forced members of the Obama administration from the president down to negotiate with him via the media."

While Britain has rightly arrested a pervert and stung-monger politician for burning the Koran, United States seems to be silent on taking any action against Pastor Terry Jones for his deadly actions. This has surely put Americans around the world at risk. In fact Americans need to learn democracy and freedom of expression from countries like India, where no one is allowed to put fire on the holy scripture of any religion or flag of any nation in the name of freedom of expression. It is important also to understand that, policymakers in White House and Pentagon are actually conspiring to establish supremacy and aggression over every nation and religion in the world. Just remember American politicians and the President takes oath putting hand on the Bible, irrespective of their religious beliefs. So, it means at the back of their mind, Christianity is the only 'divine' religion in the world, while all others are just 'trash'.

DISCLAIMER: Opinion expressed in this article is solely of the author and may not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Weekly Blitz.

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