NOTE: This isn't a debate on religion or 9-11 -- shut up your face
Recently, a number of dicks in north Florida (lolflorida) have come forward with their plans to be giant xenophobe dicks in a symbolic dickgesture:
Church plans Quran-burning event
http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-29/us/f ... r?_s=PM:US
Pastor weighing plans to burn Qurans amid U.S. warnings
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/09/07/florid ... index.html
Important Excerpts:
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
In protest of what it calls a religion "of the devil," a nondenominational church in Gainesville, Florida, plans to host an "International Burn a Quran Day" on the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
The Dove World Outreach Center says 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.
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
Muslims and many other Christians -- including some evangelicals -- are fighting the initiative.
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
Targeting another group it calls "godless," the Dove center is also hosting a protest against Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe, who is openly gay, on Monday at Gainesville's City Hall. The group previously fought -- unsuccessfully -- to derail Lowe's election campaign.
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul on Tuesday issued a statement saying the U.S. government "in no way condones such acts of disrespect against the religion of Islam, and is deeply concerned about deliberate attempts to offend members of religious or ethnic groups." It emphasized that it strongly condemned "the offensive messages, which are contrary to U.S. government policy and deeply offensive to Muslims especially during the month of Ramadan."
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Afghanistan, said the burning of Islam's holy books "could cause significant problems" for American troops overseas.
[...]
[...] Petraeus warned that burning Qurans "is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems -- not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."
[...]
"Even the rumor that [the Quran burning] might take place has sparked demonstrations such as the one that took place in Kabul yesterday," he said. "Were the actual burning to take place, the safety of our soldiers and civilians would be put in jeopardy and accomplishment of the mission would be made more difficult."
He said extremists would use images of burning Qurans to inflame public opinion and incite violence.
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
"Our message is very clear," [Jones] said. "It is not to the moderate Muslim. Our message is not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam, and I think what we see right now around the globe provides exactly what we're talking about," he said.
[...]
"We need to speak up against sin and call the people to repentance. Abortion is murder. Homosexuality is sin. We need to call these things what they are and bring the world the true message: that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life," it says on the church's website.
CNN":20ynnbzr said:
Commenting the other day on Jones' critique of Islam, Plemon el-Amin, the imam of an Atlanta, Georgia mosque, said that his words are "really quite uninformed."
"But in America, there is the freedom to be ignorant," el-Amin said. [...]
El-Amin said Jones has boasted of never reading the Quran, so, "He doesn't know that he's going to burn a book that has some of the most beautiful passages about Christ Jesus throughout, as well as Moses, Abraham and all of the prophets he reads about and says he follows in the Bible." But he said the best strategy would be to ignore Jones, "like we do people on corners saying the end of the world is coming."
AND SO
This may turn out to be a rather insignificant event. And, if it'd happened 20 years ago, no one would have even known about it.
But thanks to a load of mass-media attention focused on it, this ragtag group of retards in the boonies with painted plywood signs and an obstinate ignorance of Jesus's ideal to "turn the other cheek", may become a pariah-figure to instigate further hateful incitement between religious groups.
So the question here is: Should mass media censor itself?
When a story comes forth that would otherwise have never been more than a footnote in a redneck's diary--but is inflamed to international proportions--should mass media be blamed for the backlash?
I Opine For Thee
Freedom of speech is incredibly important--especially in an age where "net neutrality" and personal opinion are of utmost concern (and constantly threatened). No matter how abysmal/retarded/uneducated/etc a person or group's beliefs, they should be allowed to have them. And demonstrate them--so long as the act's not harming someone else's basic rights.
But IMO the huge media coverage of this story is an example of extremism in itself. If a story threatens a massive backlash or outcry -- and, in this case, it's pretty obvious that it would -- it is in incredibly bad taste to make it a headliner. It allows opposing groups to have their say, but no one in the middle east will ever know about the peace rally held the day before, all they will see are the hateful images of rednecks with golden crosses on necklaces, burning their holy book.
I understand that media itself is a business, and like any business, it should be free to pursue marketable material in any way it needs to. But headline coverage of certain stories will only make them worse, and these news groups need to understand what kind of dangerous power they hold over the sheep-minded in the world, and regulate
themselves to avoid stoking the embers.
For instance, if MSNBC were to track down and headline every KKK meeting, how do you think that would affect racial tension? The solid focus would simply heat up the ire between minorities and whites. The KKK'd inevitably get more supporters, and the division between races would deepen. Sure, some groups of whites would protest the KKK, but in the end no one would notice the movements for tolerance ... Even bad publicity is good publicity to some.
Now, you chime in.
