Koran Burning

The subject of Koran burning has returned to the news this week. However, the serious part of the story was the murder of at least 7 UN workers in Kandahar, Afghanistan with more people killed in the rioting that follow. There are three individuals or group of individuals that are looking very poorly in this development.

First, there is the Reverend Terry Jones. This story would not exist without his desire to make a statement by burning the Koran. I would agree that as a citizen of the US, he has every right to do so. However, as a member of the clergy he really needs to understand that, if he wants others to respect his religious beliefs, he must respect theirs. I am certain that he would object to people who chose to voice their objection to Christianity by burning the Bible. He needs to show a little respect for his fellow people of faith.

The second person that does poorly in this story is Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan. He seems to be the one who broke the story at least to the people of his country. It was an addition to one of his speeches that Karzai mentioned the story of the Koran burning. Up to that point, the fact that Rev. Jones had gone ahead with the Koran burning was getting the attention that it deserved: that is very little. But Karzai announced it loud and clear to his people. The motivation of the remark is not that obvious unless it was to take some pressure of of himself that he was getting for his own poor performance. What ever it was he should have been aware of what the response of some of his people would have been.

Finally, there is very little that can be said about the people that killed the UN workers. The workers were there to try to help the people of Afghanistan. They did not burn the Koran. They were innocent. Their murders were a cowardly act that has no justification any where.

This whole story is just full of people doing stupid things. My heart goes out to the UN workers and their families, and that is about it.