I wish it was just a crazed preacher wanting to burn the Koran. Goldwater's views are now considered that of a moderate Republican. We still see Bush as an extremist President wanting war with Iraq. But Bush originally thought the world would thank him for overthrowing Saddam the way the world still cheers Vietnam overthrowing Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge bloodbath in Cambodia. Today Bush strongly condemns the idea of burning a Koran. As President, George Bush visited a mosque, invited Muslims into his faith-based initiative and frequently praised the King of Jordan and the Saudis. Why ten years later to so many instead think that the Muslim religion attacked the US on 9/11. Pastor Terry Jones who wants copies of the Koran burned, now talks of radical Islam, but insists a moderate Muslim cleric not to build an expanded mosque near the 9/11 carnage.

Al Qaeda like a bunch of bed bugs like to bite. Far more frequently fellow Muslims who are not extreme enough for them than far away Americans. Everyone needs to watch HBO's, "My trip to al Qaeda". Americans constantly remind ourselves of the pain of 9/11. Spain for a while yearly memorialized the backpack bombing of the Madrid commuter trains. Imagine having fear in one's heart every time one commuted to work, instead of on less frequent airplane rides. Others don't constantly remind themselves and the world of their pain but imagine attending a mosque like the Muslims for peace in New York want to rebuild in an expanded manner, or at least the Mullah who gives as much lip service to peace as the Pope wants to build. And all during the services living in fear of being blow up by an al Qaeda attack. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Mullahs have given lip service or more for peace, mosques have been attacked during prayers.

If we insist on every year reliving the pain of 9/11 let's also try to feel the pain of attending a funeral service in Pakistan and then watching more relatives being blown up while feeling the shrapnel in our own gut as well. Or as a police officer, watching fellow officers die in an attack on the police station, while living in fear for one's wife back home or children in school.

If one googles, France declares war on al Qaeda, Dr. Fadl or Sayyid al-Sharif, a Muslim somewhat x-militant who challenges bin Laden's ideas, then google on the first anniversary of the Madrid bombing where Spanish clerics made joint speeches condemning al Qaeda as a heretic, we will realize that others have dealt with al Qaeda at a so far more successful and less expansive way then the US has. Ignoring al Qaeda as mostly hype or little more than a mirage would lead to surprises ahead, but Americans of all stripes can do better if we paid attention to the successes of others.

In my mind, bin Laden has won if in the future we never hear there was such a religion as Islam, but Americans are fined and jailed for not bowing their heads, as the public prayers to Christ are blared over the pubic loudspeakers, or even in their homes not crossing their hearts as the flag is paraded on the TV screen in the intermission between every program, and during every sports game. If we want to feel the pain of 9/11 each year, let's add the pain of others to the mix, and return to the world we once knew and should have loved.

www.phillyimc.org/en/aiding-and-abetting-our-enemies-burning-koran-postscript#comment-44750
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