Burning Korans In Front Of Jihadists--And Moderates

Terry Jones, pastor at the Dove World Outreach Center, is planning on going ahead with his idea of making September 11 "International Burn a Koran Day"--this in spite of the fact that the Gainesville fire department has denied him a permit for the event.

As it so happens, Muslims are not so happy either, with postings on Islamist sites such as:

"By Allah, the wars are heated and you Americans are the ones who...enflamed it," says one such posting. "By Allah you will be the first to taste its flames."

In response, Jones apparently feels very satisfied with himself and thinks that this kind of backlash is some kind of vindication:

I can understand that they would be offended. I think their reactions--violence, threats, murders terrorist attacks--that only reveals the true nature of Islam which needs to be revealed.

At this point, one can question the wisdom of Jones's approach of purposely riling up extremists--but the question is, who is a Muslim extremist?

A piece in the Wall Street Journal distinguishes between US wars in the Mideast--which also stir up jihadists--versus 'anti-Muslim rhetoric':

Jarret Brachman, director of Cronus Global, a security consulting firm, and author of the book Global Jihadism, said al Qaeda and other groups have long used imagery from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to recruit new members. But the U.S. position has been that those wars are not against Islam and that the U.S. has Muslim allies in the fight.

Anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S is different, since jihadists can use Americans' words to make the case that the U.S. is indeed at war with Islam. The violent postings are not just on al Qaeda-linked websites but on prominent, mainstream Muslim chat forums, Mr. Brachman said.

This is where Jones could have a point.

After all, what do you prove by drawing out threats on a jihadist websites? That is already expected and doesn't reveal anything we don't already expect. But if these sorts of threats and comments are in fact appearing on the mainstream--moderate--Muslim chat rooms, then what should we conclude?

True, we can excuse it as a natural response to extreme provocation, but is it--and should we?
Shouldn't we judge a moderate Muslim by how he acts and what he says when he is pissed off?

Technorati Tag: Koran Burning and Moderate Muslims.