Hillarysworld

It really is disgraceful that a preacher is promoting this level of hatred against another religion.

My parents taught me and siblings to worship knowledge - books as symbol of knowledge were on the pedestal as we prayed.    No, they were mostly NOT religiouis books on the pedestal.  If our legs touched a book we had to apologize (to the goddess of knowledge).  It is the level of respect that is very difficult to engender in the kids in this country... we try, but their school environment does not sustain it. 

Respect for books is a very healthy thing - it makes you revere any book and the experience of reading it.  It makes you respect the author and the knowledge... but that does not necessarily mean that you have to agree with (everything in) the content.

That a preacher promotes such hatred against a book is a big reflection on the person in the preacher.  I hope his fellow community members and preachers influence him in the near future enough that his conscience wakes up to see the folly of his path.

It's unbelievable that the Koran-burning preacher thought up the idea in the first place. And then, after being warned that Americans serving in the military would be placed at increased risk if he proceeded with the plan, he still didn't call it off?! Truly unbelievable.

Jdona, I agree that the beliefs, concerns, and interests of many Americans are not treated with the respect that those of others are. Of course freedoms of religion and speech are fundamental rights in this country. However, as those who support the mosque at Ground Zero are fully aware, the objection to that "community center" is about religion only because those who attacked the World Trade Center did so primarily, in the name of religion. When the nationality of an individual is inextricably linked to a specific religion, as in the case of the WTC terrorists, it becomes very difficult to separate the enemy from his/her national/religious identity.

Obviously, it is possible to do so - easier for the progressives whose distaste for America almost equals the hatred of this country espoused by the Islamic terrorists. The acceptance of the Ground Zero Mosque would not be so difficult for some, IMO, if those who supported it, both Muslims and non-Muslims were not so intolerant of Americans of differing views and beliefs.

There have been some pretty viscous articles expressing outrage about the lack of tolerance those who oppose the mosque have demonstrated. Yet, many of these articles have leveled personal insults, complete with name-calling, at the Americans who are expressing their right to free speech.

You want to know what would go a long way in healing the wounds from 9/11? For American Muslims to stand up and be counted. The silence from this community is deafening. Why aren't they protesting at the embassies of Afghanistan and Iraq, and Iran and all the other Muslim countries in defense of American flags and American ideals and beliefs? Why don't they stand up and be counted when they burn effigies of our President? After all it is also THEIR flag, it is THEIR president. I'm fed up with the double standards. I'm not going to defend this preacher in Florida. I think he is certifiable. I'm also not going to defend Muslims. My silence is going to be just as deafening as theirs.