Jones – Well Past A Joke

12 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , ,

Terry Jones - HatefulSo called pastor Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach Centre in Florida, better know as the fundamentalist Christian who planned to burn copies of the Quran in 2010, has been connected with an American made film aimed at insulting the Prophet Muhammad.

The violent reaction to the film has resulted in the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three others in Libya after a trailer was posted in Arabic on YouTube. The film was being promoted by an extreme anti-Muslim Egyptian Christian campaigner in the United States, according to Sam Bacile, who wrote and directed it.

Bacile also claims that the film’s $5m was funded by monies given by over 100 Jewish donors. Although apologetic about the American who died as a result of the outrage, he blamed lax embassy security and the perpetrators of the violence.

So when is someone going to put a stop to these hateful people, who are inflaming already sensitive relations. Whilst I applaud the right to free speech, that freedom comes with a responsibility. If these people cannot control their religious bigotry, they should not be given the privilege to voice their views.

British, American and other nations young men and women are risking, and losing, their lives in places like Afghanistan, in the hope that they can bring a stable situation to these troubled countries. The results of their peace-keeping, policing missions will be hugely damaged by such inflammatory stunts, and the US legislature should put a stop to them.

Sheer Lunacy

01 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , ,

Pastor Terry JonesPastors Wayne Sapp and Terry Jones’ publicity stunt, burning a copy of the Koran in church in Florida, has resulted in tragic consequences. A United Nations compound in the Afghanistan city of Mazar-e Sharif has been attacked by a mob, resulting in the deaths of several people on both sides of the incident.

Let us, just for one minute, examine the act by the two pastors in terms of Wisdom, Courage and Compassion.

Wisdom: Pastor Jones had seemed to show a modicum of wisdom when he refrained from a previous burning to ‘commemorate’ the 9-11 attack on the World Trade buildings. Sadly, that appears to have been a short lived bout, and he has again been shown to lack any kind of wisdom by associating himself with Pastor Sapp’s event.

Courage: The burning took place in Florida on March 20th. A pretty brave act, so far away from Afghanistan? The two men have used this stunt to raise their profiles at the expense of the UN staff killed today. There is no courage in such an action. Pastor Jones has even disclaimed any responsibility for any reaction to this crass act.

Compassion: The Wikipedia definition of compassion is ‘co-suffering’ or suffering together. All the major world religions list compassion as one of the most important virtues. So how does this act, by two pastors, fit into this meaning? Obviously it doesn’t, unless they actually want copies of the Bible to be burnt in Afghanistan, which I doubt.

My friend Cindy asked ‘Why can’t we all live together’ on Facebook yesterday. Well sadly Cindy, it is because of people like this. There just isn’t enough Wisdom, Courage or Compassion in the world.