The debate about the Ground Zero Mosque continues with raucous volatility and widespread participation. These are all signs of the greatest strengths of freedom and free speech loving democratic societies. And although it is not always pleasant, it is always the best way to get to the truth of things.
But in this debate, something extraordinary happened:
The pastor of a small Florida church who has pledged to incinerate copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 said Wednesday he would press ahead with the plan … .
Here are some of those who have weighed in against him: General David Petreaus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, both the Republican and Democratic candidates for Governor in Florida, and Sarah Palin. Muslim media from Turkey and Afghanistan “warned that burning the sacred text of Islam could deepen animosity toward the West,” and Iran’s Revolutionary Guard warned that “President Barack Obama . . . would have to bear responsibility for the actions of Mr. Jones if the Quran is burned . . . .” Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Sadeghi Golpaygani said that “[t]he dangers of this despicable action are clear to all. It will ignite massive fires of anger and hatred towards America.” The Florida ACLU alsocame out against the Pastor by “condemn[ing] Mr. Jones’s message . . . as un-American but defended his right to free speech.”
And, of course, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf said:
My major concern with moving it (the Ground Zero Mosque) is that the headline in the Muslim world will be, ‘Islam is under attack in America.’ This will strengthen the radicals in the Muslim world, help their recruitment. This will put our people, our soldiers, our troops, our embassies, our citizens, under attack in the Muslim world.
Who would have thought that a Pastor, “Terry Jones . . . of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla.” could ignite such a conflagration of resistance about “incinerating a copy of the Quran?
Not surprisingly, those outbursts of the debators weighed heavily on him and he subsequently “abandoned plans to burn copies of the Quran on Sept. 11 . . . .”
Not many years ago, a group of co-workers were having their morning coffee in their office building and debating the prospects of the New York Giants and New York Jets in the evolving NFL season. Little did they realize that in just seconds, one of Western culture’s most sophisticated marvels, the modern jet airliner, would enter their office and interrupt their conversation. It had been converted into a huge fuel air bomb by terrible, evil ideas.
In the blink of an eye, they would be incinerated by it. And not only themselves, but everyone proximate to the impact zone, absorbing about 150 tons moving at perhaps 250 miles per hour, would also be incinerated. The lives of the innocent passengers and crew of this new weapon of mass destruction would also be ended by incineration.
And horror of horrors, perfectly innocent people who were at risk of being incinerated alive before the buildings collapsed, chose to jump out of the upper stories and free fall 800 to 1,000 feet to a different death before being incinerated.
Eventually, the incineration of the building’s structure would cause it to implode entirely and complete the killing of the innocent.
Horrifically, another jet airliner would inflict the same hell on their innocent compatriots in the twin tower next door with all the same consequences of incineration for them.
The main feature of this plot was to maximize the killings of randomly selected, perfectly innocent people. The sophistication and evilness of it is self-evident. And it was not a spontaneous plot. It was not the first attempt destroy their building.
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing occurred on February 26, 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center … .
Ramzi Yousef … spent time at Al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, before beginning in 1991 to plan a bombing attack within the United States. Yousef’s uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, who later was considered the principal architect of the September 11 attacks, gave him advice and tips over the phone, and funded him with a US$660 wire transfer … .
Yousef set up residence … in Jersey City … and called Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a controversial blind Muslim cleric … . After being introduced to his co-conspirators by Abdel Rahman at the latter’s Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, Yousef began assembling the 1,500 lb urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device for delivery to the WTC … .
Ramzi Yousef … ignited the 20-foot fuse, and fled. Twelve minutes later, at 12:17:37 pm, the bomb exploded in the underground garage, generating an estimated pressure of 150,000 psi … .
Altogether, six people were killed and 1,042 others were injured … . The towers did not collapse … . Nevertheless, had the van been parked closer to the WTS’s poured concrete foundations, Yousef’s plan might have succeeded … . (emphasis added).
Pastor Terry Jones was called back by a free and fierce debate. Who would have called back the incinerators of all these innocent people?
And so the only question that remains is: With respect to the existence of moderate Islam:
Is the burden of proof on the nations of Western culture or the nations of Islam?
