Is This A First Amendment Issue? Updated YouTube

Pastor Terry Jones, of the huge (50 members) Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida plans to burn the Quran Saturday September 11.  In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," the nondenominational church plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  It is hosting the event to remember 9/11 victims and take a stand against Islam. With promotions on its website and Facebook page, it invites Christians to burn the Muslim holy book at the church from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

"We believe that Islam is of the devil, that it's causing billions of people to go to hell, it is a deceptive religion, it is a violent religion and that is proven many, many times," Pastor Terry Jones said earlier this week.

Gen. David Petraeus took the rare step of a military leader taking a position on a domestic matter when he warned in an e-mail to The Associated Press that "images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence."

"How much do we back down? How many times do we back down?" Jones told the AP. "Instead of us backing down, maybe it's time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior."

Is this a Constitutional issue?  The courts have determined that it is legal to burn the American flags.  The courts find nothing inappropriate about burning the Bible.

His actions most likely would be protected by the First Amendment's right to free speech. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear in several landmark rulings that speech deemed offensive to many people, even the majority of people, cannot be suppressed by the government unless it is clearly directed to intimidate someone or amounts to an incitement to violence, legal experts said.

The world deems it appropriate to burn the American flag and the Bible.  Is this pastor really saying why do the Muslims always get a pass for their harsh actions?  The world does fear the Muslims.  No one can do anything to upset them.

The pastor should NOT burn the Quran.  America is not about burning books.  The burning would be the wrong symbolic symbol as building the Ground Zero mosque would be.  Jones actions would put many heroic Americans lives in jeopardy.  We can all pray this pastor is just trying to gain his moment of fame realizes that he is hurting America and brave Americans if he does.

Update: 

 Terry Jones announced on Thursday that he will not burn hundreds of Korans to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.  Speaking to reporters outside his church in Gainesville, Fla., Mr. Jones said that he would instead fly to New York to try to convince the imam who plans to build a Muslim community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan, near the site of the World Trade Center, to move his building to another location.

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