I Choose Freedom

A few weeks after an obscure pastor of a tiny church in Florida burned a book that he owned, mobs of frenzied savages hell bent for blood lust murdered a bunch of people thousands of miles away. Now keep in mind that the murdered dead (some of whom were decapitated by the frenzied mobs) had nothing whatsoever to do with that burned book thousands of miles away and they may have also found the book burning objectionable, but that didn't matter to the frenzied mobs because they felt compelled to kill people by their religious and political leaders.  In the immediate aftermath of the killings by the frenzied mobs, American politicians and even a General heading up our war efforts in Afghanistan weighed in that Americans' Constitutionally protected right to free speech (which all of these people swore to uphold when taking the oaths required for their jobs) should be cast aside in favor of appeasing the lunatics who kill people any time they hear of someone anywhere in the world who may have possibly said or done something that the killers deem offensive. Harry Reid, Lindsey Graham, General David Petraeus and other American 'leaders' have violated their oaths of office and should resign in disgrace for their sedition.

Here are parts one and two of the best videos ever made explaining what exactly the problem is with our idiot 'leaders' and their choosing to shove islamic sharia law down our throats instead of honoring the United States Constitution which they are sworn to defend:





People not only desecrate symbols of Christianity often in our country, many times they also receive federal funding for doing so when they call it 'art'. Bibles are burned in islamic lands routinely and often but you don't see fanatic mobs of offended Christians rioting, blowing stuff up and chopping off people's heads. Muslims burn churches and synagogues with people still in them, they have gone into Christian houses of worship and slaughtered parishioners, for no reason at all other than the order to kill and abuse non-muslims given by the koran and islamic clerics, but WE are told that we mustn't offend the muslims because they kill people when they are offended. What this means in effect is that we are telling muslims that all they need to do to make us do what they want is to kill people. This will not stop them from killing people, it will encourage them to kill more people because they know it is an effective blackmail technique. Keep in mind that these people are perpetually offended; if it's not a burned book or the threat that a book MIGHT get burned, it is a cartoon, or something someone may or may not have said, or a woman who isn't buried under a burka, or gay people, or Jews, Christians, or Buddhists, or Hindus, or a beauty pageant, or ice cream or bacon, or a teddy bear, or well, pretty much anything on any given day that they feel like killing people because they aren't REALLY killing people over an offense (real or imaginary), they are killing people because the murdered dead are not muslim, or they are no longer muslim, or if they are muslim, they aren't the right 'kind' of muslim and their 'holy' book and their religious and political leaders say that 'infidels' must be killed or enslaved. Are you ready to give up all of your freedom to avoid 'offending' thin skinned perpetually offended lunatics who will still want to kill you anyway? The only thing islamorageboys will accept as appeasement will be full conversion to islam or submission to dhimmitude for non-muslims, and even then they may still kill you if you don't surrender exactly to their satisfaction.

We are at the proverbial fork in the road, you can choose to submit to oppression or you can choose to fight for your freedom and that of your children. Now is the time to make your choice, choose wisely.

The Time has come. No longer can we turn a blind eye to the forces of evil which seek to destroy our very existence because we are afraid of being "offensive". The wolves aren't simply scratching at the door, they are in our house because we invited them here, for fear of appearing intolerant. Ignoring evil isn't "intolerance", it is suicide.

The time for fear has passed, it is time to cast off the restraints that have been placed on us through deception. We end it now.

Political Correctness is the language of fear and oppression and are the tools of the enemies of truth and freedom. If we are to stand for freedom and truth, we must be wholly unafraid. Trust in the power of truth and goodness, speak power into truth, freedom and goodness by being unafraid in your words and deeds.

Islamic supremacism is a clear and present danger. Millions have been slaughtered around the world in its name along with thousands here. Islam's express purpose is to dominate (through murder, oppression, terror and forced conversion) the entire world. Its doctrine tells followers to kill non-muslims, kill anyone who dares to speak out against it, and kill any muslim who opens their eyes to the horror in front of them and tries to escape it. Yes, there are nice normal people who happen to be muslim and yes, they are disgusted by jihadis' brutality, but they do not speak out except in whispers to non-muslims - they are loathe to speak out publicly to other muslims about it because the penalty for doing so is death. There are muslim women and children who do not wish to be subjugated and beaten the way their religion says they should be, but the penalty for leaving or speaking out against it is death. Muslims are in as much danger as the whole of Western Civilization from islamic supremacism and they need help, but first they must find the courage to ask for it.

We non-muslims have allowed ourselves to be taken advantage of by those who use our own commitment to tolerance and religious freedom against us.  We are told that speaking the truth is "offensive", that demanding that all people in our land adhere to our laws only is "intolerant" and that we must make accommodations for those who come to this country but choose not to live as we do. It is a deception that too many have willingly bought into for far too long and if we do not do something about it, it will be the end of our lives as we know them forever.

We must find the courage to speak out, in no uncertain terms, that we are first and foremost AMERICANS and that we intend to remain as such. We will not cater our language and our customs or bend our laws to accommodate those who refuse to assimilate.  We will no longer be intimidated into silence for silence means death and Americans do not die without a fight.

This is a war that we didn't start, but it is one we cannot afford to lose. Read the rest HERE

And now that I have linked to and quoted from myself, here's a massive roundup of links and excerpts so you can see what others have to say on this subject:

More On Lindsey Graham (Don’t Speak Those Four Words Too Quickly) by Smitty at The Other McCain:

Just retire, Senator Graham. You’ve identified yourself as a clueless. Your non-grasp of what the First Amendment is trying to do seems to permeate the policies you support. You seem to care about freedom of speech as much as you care about the integrity of the borders.

More On Koran Burning Andrew McCarthy:

I don’t find the burning any more offensive in principle than I do its opposite extreme: the bizarro hyper-reverence with which the Koran is handled by the Defense Department.

Down at Gitmo, the Defense Department gives the Koran to each of the terrorists even though DoD knows they interpret it (not without reason) to command them to kill the people who gave it to them. To underscore our precious sensitivity to Muslims, standard procedure calls for the the book to be handled only by Muslim military personnel. Sometimes, though, that is not possible for various reasons. If, as a last resort, one of our non-Muslim troops must handle or transport the book, he must wear white gloves, and he is further instructed primarily to use the right hand (indulging Muslim culture’s taboo about the sinister left hand). The book is to be conveyed to the prisoners in a “reverent manner” inside a “clean dry towel.” This is a nod to Islamic teaching that infidels are so low a form of life that they should not be touched (as Ayatollah Ali Sistani teaches, non-Muslims are “considered in the same category as urine, feces, semen, dead bodies, blood, dogs, pigs, alcoholic liquors,” and “the sweat of an animal who persistently eats [unclean things].”

This is every bit as indecent as torching the Koran, implicitly endorsing as it does the very dehumanization of non-Muslims that leads to terrorism. Furthermore, there is hypocrisy to consider: the Defense Department now piously condemning Koran burning is the same Defense Department that itself did not give a second thought to confiscating and burning bibles in Afghanistan.

Quite consciously, U.S. commanders ordered this purge in deference to sharia proscriptions against the proselytism of faiths other than Islam. And as General Petraeus well knows, his chain of command is not the only one destroying bibles. Non-Muslim religious artifacts, including bibles, are torched or otherwise destroyed in Islamic countries every single day as a matter of standard operating procedure. (See, e.g., my 2007 post on Saudi government guidelines that prohibit Jews and Christians from bringing bibles, crucifixes, Stars of David, etc., into the country — and, of course, not just non-Muslim accessories but non-Muslim people are barred from entering Mecca and most of Medina, based on the classical interpretation of an injunction found in what Petraeus is fond of calling the Holy Qur’an (sura 9:28: “Truly the pagans are unclean . . . so let them not . . . approach the sacred mosque”).

I don’t like book burning either, but I think there are different kinds of book burnings. One is done for purposes of censorship — the attempt to purge the world of every copy of a book to make it as if the sentiments expressed never existed. A good modern example is Cambridge University Press’s shameful pulping of all known copies of Alms for Jihad (see Stanley’s 2007 post on that). The other kind of burning is done as symbolic condemnation. That’s what I think Terry Jones was doing. He knows he doesn’t have the ability to purge the Koran from the world, and he wasn’t trying to. He was trying to condemn some of the ideas that are in it — or maybe he really thinks the whole thing is condemnable.

This is a particularly aggressive and vivid way to express disdain, but I don’t know that it is much different in principle from orally condemning some of the Koran’s suras and verses. Sura 9 of the Koran, for example, states the supremacist doctrine that commands Muslims to kill and conquer non-Muslims (e.g., 9:5: “But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the pagans wherever ye find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war) . . .”; 9:29: “Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the last day, nor hold forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the Religion of Truth, from among the people of the Book [i.e., the Jews and Christians], until they pay the jizya [i.e., the tax paid for the privilege of living as dhimmis under the protection of the sharia state] with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued”). I must say, I’ve got a much bigger problem with the people trying to comply with those commands than with the guy who burns them.

Violence Over Qur'an-burning Continues While Senators Reid and Graham ... Think the Solution is Censoring Free Speech? Hyscience:

Last time I checked the First Amendment I couldn't find an exemption for political correctness and appeasing Muslims, anywhere. Free speech means allowing free speech, period - even things some people don't like to hear. If left-wing loons can burn American flags, a somewhat loony pastor in Florida (or anyone else) can damn well burn an effing Qur'an. And by the way, I don't hear the good senators wanting to shut down Muslims free speech here in America, even when Muslim in Pakistan (and elsewhere) burn bibles and destroy crosses.

Muslims Kill in Anger, So Americans Need to Watch What They Say and Do All American Blogger:

We have been told repeatedly since 9/11 that Islam is a religion of peace and we can’t hold all Muslims responsible for the actions of a few radicals.  But when two Christians get together and burn their own property, hurting no one in the process, Harry Reid is ready to investigate and Lindsey Graham is ready to shut you up.

It’s really quite flabbergasting.

Muslims burn Bibles.  There are plenty of them in the churches they routinely burn down across the Middle East, along with the Christians inside them they didn’t hack to death with machetes.

Are Muslims Retarded? Morgue's Toe Tag Blog:

... I've noticed that the way that our media/military/government expects us to act in regards to Muslims is exactly the same way we're expected to act around people who are mentally deficient (also known as "exceptional people", previously known as mentally retarded or simply "retards"). Now I don't mean to poke fun at people with mental issues, in fact many years ago, when I was an assistant in a medical office, I worked with children who were mentally retarded, and I've previously volunteered at the Special Olympics. I have nothing but love and compassion for people who (through no fault of their own) struggle with basic human functions, and are perpetually stuck in a child-like state. However, I hate the Marxist rooted concept of political correctness, so if I use terms that offend you, I suggest you cry a river, build a bridge, and get over it.
Now, let's get back to my basic point. For those of you who haven't worked with people suffering from mental retardation, they are very child-like, and can respond in extreme ways if provoked. We've all seen children throwing violent tantrums, and when that child is a fully-grown adult, those tantrums can be deadly. When working with people like this it's important to project an overly positive image. Phrases like "Hi Buddy!" and "Great job!" are thrown around regularly, and accompanied by enthusiastic smiles, hugs, pats on the back, etc.
Sometimes however, someone says something or does something that may be (or simply interpreted as) upsetting, and no matter how the mentally retarded person acts, it is NEVER EVER their fault. How could it be? They don't understand things like civility, restraint, tolerance, and so on. Even if they lash out violently, it's not their fault because we understand that they are essentially big children who don't appreciate what they are doing or the consequences of their actions.
Doesn't that sound suspiciously close to how we're expected to act in regards to Islam? Just like the term "retard" is offensive, being critical of Islam is also a social taboo (although it didn't seem to be a problem prior to 9/11, which is odd when you think about it). You have to be careful about what you say and do because when Muslims act violently and MURDER people, they aren't responsible for their actions; it's the people who offended them that are responsible.
The only conclusion I can draw is that our media, our military leaders, and our government officials believe that Muslims are retarded. That should offend Muslims much more than what some random guy in Florida did to his private property.

Muslims and Moral Handicaps Sultan Knish:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wants an investigation into Koran burning. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer suggested that this form of free speech could be banned. Senator Lindsey Graham is also looking for ways to limit free speech, saying, "Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war".

Free speech is more than a great idea, it's a fundamental freedom untouchable by legislators. But all it takes is a few Muslim murders-- and Reid, Breyer and Graham eagerly hold up their lighters to the Constitution. Free speech has been curtailed before in the United States during a time of war-- but only free speech sympathetic to the enemy. During WW1 a suspected German propagandist filmmaker was jailed. But could anyone have imagined anti-German propagandists being jailed? The Wilson administration was behaving unconstitutionally, but not insanely.

Today we aren't jailing filmmakers who traffic in anti-American propaganda in wartime. If we did that half of Hollywood would be  behind bars. Instead Democratic and Republican Senators are discussing banning speech offensive to the enemy. Because even though they're killing us already-- we had better not provoke them or who knows how much worse it will become.

Traditionally it's the victors who give their laws to the defeated. But massive immigration at home and nation building occupations abroad mean that the defeated of failed states are imposing their Sharia law on us. We're asked to trade in our Constitutional freedoms out of fear of Muslim violence. And so the murderers impose the terms of peace on us. And then don't abide by them.

Violence in the Muslim world is a constant. We have been fighting Muslim violence since George Washington's time. And we have been subject to it even longer. Whether it's Muslims killing Hindus, Christians, Jews, Zoroastrians or any and every religion under the sun-- there is a pattern here. It's a story as old as time. And it's not one that we can stop by ladling out honeyed words of appeasement. RTR

Beheading Ourselves Over Islam Investor's Business Daily:

President Obama's top Muslim envoy has been overseas encouraging devotion to Islam, including in terror hot spots like Afghanistan. In fact, Rashad Hussain, U.S. special envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, just returned from Afghanistan, where he told locals the antidote to Islamic violence "is Islam itself."
"I am of the opinion that one of the strongest tools that you can use to counter radicalization and violent extremism is Islam itself, because Islam rejects violent extremism," Hussain said during a speech in Kabul.
Afghans responded to his message by slaughtering a dozen innocent United Nations workers in the name of Islam.
Stirred by mosque sermons, a mob of thousands overran a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan following Friday prayers. They sawed off the heads of two guards before killing the others, including Norwegian and Swedish nationals, inside. It was Afghanistan's deadliest attack on U.N. personnel.
The worshippers also burned American flags and effigies of Obama — all to defend the honor of a single, paperback copy of a Quran torched by a quack U.S. preacher thousands of miles away in Florida. So far, more than 20 have died in the rioting.
Islamic law calls for vengeance against anybody who insults Islam, its prophet or its holy book. Islamic law is enshrined in the post-Taliban Afghan constitution. Yet Rashad, a devout Muslim, says the Muslim faith is "key" to the administration's strategy to turn Muslims away from violence.
"We see that as one of the key elements of a strategy to address this type of violence," he said. By "we," he means the Obama administration. So it's now official policy to try to douse the Islamic fire of jihad by pouring more fuel on it. This is breathtaking. MORE HERE

Ending America: The Slaughter of Free Speech, Congress to "explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech" Atlas Shrugs (this is super important so I'm just gonna paste the whole thing):

".....be free to speak—evil ideas are dangerous only by default of men advocating better ideas." Ayn Rand

The very idea that our legislators would restrict free speech and impose the sharia (blasphemy laws) as a response to inhuman barbarity is an act of sedition and treason. When did we ever shred America's golden, historic principles in submission to bloody savage totalitarianism? If America really understood what was happening here and was not psy-oped by an enemedia, they would take to the streets with pitchforks and torches. And I would be front and center. This cannot, and I mean must not, be allowed to happen.
Have we lost our civilizational self-esteem? Do we not know who and what we are, and what made us the grestest civilization in the history of man?
The idea that this will threaten American troops is just another terror tactic. This is based on the assumption that they are fighting us because we are doing things they don't like. Actually they are fighting us because of imperatives within the Islamic faith. They will never like us unless we convert to Islam or submit to Islamic rule. If we stop doing things they dislike, where will we draw the line? How far will Sharia advance in the U.S., with Americans afraid to stop its advance for fear of offending Muslims and stirring them up to violence? This is incompatible with American freedom. We have to draw the line. Here.
Contact your congress people now. Not five minutes from now. NOW.
Contact Lindsey Graham's office, Reid's office, etc., as well as your own elected dhimmis.

http://lgraham.senate.gov/public/ and http://reid.senate.gov/index.cfm

AP Photo/Rahmat GulAn Afghan protestor beats a burning effigy of U.S. President Barack Obama during a rally in Jalalabad, Afghanistan on Sunday, April 3, 2011.

Reid: Probe of Quran Burning Considered Newsmax
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional lawmakers are discussing taking some action in response to the Koran burnings of a Tennessee pastor that led to killings at the U.N. facility in Afghanistan and sparked protests across the Middle East, Politico reports.

“Ten to 20 people have been killed," Reid said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’ll take a look at this of course. As to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech, in light of Tennessee pastor Terry Jones’ Quran burning, and how such actions result in enabling U.S. enemies.

"I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war," Graham told CBS' Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

We are in a war? So act like it. Don't surrender. Hold Peter King hearings every day, with the right witnesses.

“During World War II, we had limits on what you could do if it inspired the enemy," Graham said, adding certain speech can “put our troops at risk.”

Limiting free speech won't stop the jihadis from killing people. It will have just the opposite effect, but serve as reinforcement of their murderous actions. More people will die. Many more. 

A Koran, and Free Speech, In Flames Robert Spencer:

Obama found the burning of the Koran, and the burning of any book, distasteful, as do I.  But that was why he should have stood up for Terry Jones.  Speech that is inoffensive needs no protection, and those in power can all too easily use “hate speech” codes to restrict speech they find politically inconvenient or challenging.  Obama could have said:  "While I disapprove of this Koran-burning, in America we believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental bulwark against tyranny and the hallmark of a truly free society, and it requires us to put up with things we don't like without responding with violence."
He could, in short, have used Jones’ barbecued Koran as a teaching tool to demonstrate why free societies are preferable to sharia states.  But instead, Obama and the media are effectively reinforcing the principle that violent intimidation works:  They knew that somewhere in the world Muslims were going to behave like rabid dogs because of the burned Koran, and instead of telling them to grow up and act like civilized people, they are demanding that free people change the way they behave to adjust to this case of rabies.
Obama could and should be telling these rioting Afghans and Pakistanis, and those who are defending them, to realize that if someone burns a Koran in Florida, it doesn't harm them, or the Koran, or Allah, or Muhammad.  He could and should tell them that to respond with irrational violence against people who are not involved with the burning (or even against the people who are involved with it) is just savagery. RTWT

Re: Lindsey Graham and the First Amendment Mark Steyn:

I have no expectations of Harry Reid or the New York Times, but I have nothing but total contempt for the wretched buffoon Graham.

A mob of deranged ululating blood-lusting head-hackers slaughter Norwegian female aid-workers and Nepalese guards — and we’re the ones with the problem?

I agree with the Instaprof: Lindsey Graham is unfit for office. The good news is there’s no need for the excitable lads of Mazar e-Sharif to chop his head off because he’s already walking around with nothing up there. Read it all HERE

Stay out of it, General Michael Zebulon:

As long as Muslims are permitted to get away with intimidating the world into according them and their beliefs a privileged, exclusive status denied everybody else, they will never be obliged to question their bullying and barbarous, egotistical and  triumphalist deportment in relation to that world.

The Tyrant and His Chains: A Reminder to Reid, Graham & Obama Jenn Q Public (The whole article is superb, detailing how 22 years ago there was a media and bi-partisan effort to defend free speech in the wake of islamist terror attacks which were done to 'protest' Salman Rushdie's book. Here's the conclusion):

Would Graham call Rushdie’s novel “a terrible thing” that “put our troops at risk”? Would he say, “Freedom of speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war”?
Would Reid kowtow to Khomeini as he did to Karzai? Would he promise to “look at” passing a resolution to censure the editors of The Riverdale Press and Rushdie for exercising their First Amendment rights?
Would the president denounce Rushdie for blasphemy against Islam and call the publication of his book “an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry“?
These are the words Graham, Reid, and Obama used to criticize the Florida pastor who burned a copy of the Koran. Rather than blame Afghan President Hamid Karzai for igniting hostilities or a barbaric culture in which violence is often the default setting, they are holding one law-abiding demagogue in Florida responsible for deadly riots in Afghanistan.
22 years after Democrats and Republicans came together to support freedom of expression and condemn the terror attack on a Bronx newspaper, we are watching the formation of a new bipartisan coalition, one that advocates wartime suspension of First Amendment rights and submission to the demands of Islamist street thugs and leaders. 22 years later, we’re announcing to the world that our Constitutional rights are fragile enough to crumble in the face of threats, intimidation, and unspeakable acts of violence abroad.
First they came for the Koran burner …

Obscene apologies Pols appeasing Islamists Michael Walsh:

To this we've come: Bogged down in an increasingly ineffectual military operation in Afghanistan that should have ended years ago after we defeated the Taliban and routed al Qaeda, we are instead apologizing to the very people who are killing American soldiers, and treating their holy book better than we do any other.

Lindsey Graham: Hey, We Should Outlaw Burning the Koran Because The Constitution Should Be Sharia-Compliant Ace of Spades:

Are you sure, Senator Graham? I don't remember Walt Disney being prosecuted for daring to insult the majesty of Naziism.

Graham deliberately lies here -- what people might have been prosecuted for was giving aid and comfort to the enemy, not insulting the enemy. That is what he now wishes we had laws to prosecute as a crime -- the crime of being impolite to one's enemies in war.

No More Dhimmitude Andrew McCarthy:

The warped moral universe we’ve turned into policy has become a national embarrassment. Leave aside the mind-bending idiocy of the Graham theory, under which it would have been condemnable to torch Das Capital during the Cold War. Our Middle East policymakers can no longer distinguish between evil and stupidity. They go out of their way to genuflect to the scriptures that catalyze our enemies while willfully ignoring bible burning, church burning and infidel burning, which are everyday events in Islamic countries. Their strategy prizes the lives of people who despise our country over the security of our troops. After a decade of our sacrifice, they have managed to birth states in which Americans are hated, religious minorities are persecuted, and people who attempt to convert from Islam face prosecution and — unless they get whisked out of the country — the death penalty. And now, they’ve decide the big problem is not their skewed value-system but our First Amendment.

Enough. Petraeus says, “we are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people.” Is that why you thought we sent troops to Afghanistan? Is that what you think we should be doing in Afghanistan now? I am pretty confident that most Americans couldn’t care less about the Afghan people, and I know the Afghan people couldn’t care less about us — except to the extent they trouble themselves to dislike us.

We got in this to defeat our enemies, and we’re ending up defeating ourselves and the principles for which we once stood. We never had any strategic vision of the global war, we had no stomach to follow through on the Bush Doctrine commitment to eradicate the rogue regimes that were behind the terror networks, and we decided we could outreach and democratize them into submission. Now we are predictably hoisted on our own petard as Islamists exploit our rhetoric to make themselves the champions of “democracy” — meaning of elections that are bringing to power those who hate our country and whose ambition is to destroy Israel and the West. Obviously, no one in government is willing to change this policy, so let’s end it.

What should our new policy be? We should have as little to do with Muslim countries as possible. At home, we should focus on the political and legal terrain with an eye toward:

(a) distinguishing between our allies in the American Muslim community (i.e., those who do not want to impose sharia on public life) and those who seek to undermine our constitutional system, so we can marginalize the latter;

(b) excluding from the United States aliens who would support supplanting the U.S. Constitution with a sharia system (i.e., revisiting the hash Congress and the courts have made regarding the reliance on anti-American ideology — not just ties to violence — as a basis for keeping non-Americans out of our country); and

(c) cutting off immigration from, and sharply reducing contacts with, Muslim countries until they take it on themselves to reform — on separation of mosque and state, freedom of conscience, equality, interfaith tolerance, individual liberty, and unambiguous rejection of terrorism.

Not only is that a policy that can work, it is one an insolvent country can actually afford.

Fired up over nothing Michael Graham:

Now we have a new standard: The Muslim Standard. Burning books is fine — just not the Koran. Offensive political cartoons are no problem — unless they offend Islamists.
The result is a moment that is extremely uncustomary: The president of the United States, members of Congress and key military leaders joining together to condemn an American citizen for political protest — not because it violates our values, but because it violates the values of militant, living in the 9th-century Islamists.
In other words, Barack Obama has brought the free speech standards of Iran and the Gaza Strip to the streets of the United States.
Since American liberals don’t have the guts to say it, allow me: the Rev. Terry Jones hasn’t done anything wrong. Nothing.
He burned a book. So what? Book burning isn’t illegal, immoral or — in a free society — particularly interesting. Jones is just another media-hungry activist with an issue to promote.
When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he wishes “we could find some way to hold people accountable,” what does he want to hold Jones accountable for? Carbon emissions from the burning pages?
Some nut burns a Koran, I don’t worry.
But when a sitting U.S. senator says, “Free speech is a great idea, but we’re in a war,” that’s when I start having sleepless nights.
“Free speech is a great idea, but . . . ?” But what? If it truly is a “custom” to murder cartoonists and kill over the Koran, then Islam has the problem — not us.
Book burning does not cause murder. Religious books held as precious by millions get burned all the time, and without ensuring violence: The Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, The Torah — even the occasional “Dreams of My Father.”

Does America Have a De Facto State Religion? Ed Driscoll

The burning of the koran..... My Daily Kona:

It is very troubling to see the wussypants elected leaders in America piling on Florida preacher Terry Jones for burning the Koran. Why? Certainly, burning something that is sacred to another is always bad taste. But the Constitution guarantees the right to bad taste. Does burning a Koran differ from burning any other holy book? Or the American flag? To the politically correct mouth breathers in America, the answer is yes! Sadly, I’m including American Senators such as Lindsey “Fredo” Graham and DB Harry Reid. Their political correctness states that Americans must somehow respect the Koran and Islam above all! Are they any different from the Muslim savages in Afghanistan?   We are far more tolerant as a western based society than other places on earth.  it is ok for them to burn flags, burn bibles, burn churches and kill unbelievers.  It is ok, it is expected for them to act like barbarians.

Business As Usual Aaron Goldstein:

So once again the Muslim world is inflamed.   But then again when isn't the Muslim world inflamed? Of course, most of us remember the late Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa against Salman Rushdie following the publication of The Satanic Verses. While Rushdie is still walking this earth more than two decades after the fatwa was issued, the same cannot be said of Hitoshi Igarashi. If his name isn't familiar it ought to be. Igarashi was the man who translated The Satanic Verses into Japanese and because of it he was stabbed to death in July 1991. And in case you think the Muslim world has forgotten about Rushdie, there were renewed calls for his death in 2007 when it was announced he would be knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Remember when authorities in Sudan accused an English schoolteacher named Gillian Gibbons of blaspheming Islam because the children in her class named a teddy bear Mohammed? She was sent to jail and was due to receive forty lashes until international pressure was brought to bear against the Sudanese government, which released her from jail and deported her back to Britain.
Remember the Danish cartoon controversy? In January 2010, nearly four years after the cartoons of Mohammed were published in Jyllands-Posten, a Somali man broke into the home of Kurt Westergaard, the man who drew Mohammed, with the intent of killing him. Fortunately, Danish police were able to thwart the attack and Westergaard was unharmed.
Theo Van Gogh wasn't so lucky. In November 2004, he was murdered in broad daylight in the streets of Amsterdam because of his documentary film Submission,which documented violence against women in the Muslim world. Remember what Van Gogh's murderer, Mohammed Bouyeri, said to his mother in a Dutch courtroom? Bouyeri said to her face that he felt no sympathy for her because he deemed her a non-believer. Van Gogh collaborated on this project with former Dutch Member of Parliament Ayaan Hirsi Ali who to this very day is under 24 hour protection?
Speaking of violence against women in the Muslim world, it was in January of this year that a14-year-old girl named Hena Akhter was executed in Bangladesh for having been raped. Yet in the eyes of Sharia law and the Muslim village council who upheld it she was nothing more than an adulterer who brought dishonor to both her family and to her village.
Let's suppose for a moment that the Koran hadn't been burned in that Florida church. Does anyone think it would have abated the anger in the Muslim world one iota? If there are Muslims who are prepared to kill someone for translating a book (let alone writing one); for drawing a cartoon; for making a film; for naming a stuffed animal or for being forced to have sex then something is very horribly wrong with how Islam is presently being practiced. In what other religion would such behavior be tolerated much less sanctioned?

SOMETHING MUST BE DONE! Cold Fury:

It’s the main reason Western liberals are so horrified at the “hurtfulness” of burning the Muslims’ nasty little totalitarian screed; when were they ever even slightly concerned about the insults and libels Christians endure every single day, from government-funded art exhibits, to juvenile hack comedians trying to shock their parents, to quivering pundits hysterical about the ridiculous notion of “theocracy” in America, to the Saudis’ confiscation and burning or shredding of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Bibles and other non-Muslim religious texts every year?

Answer: never, that’s when. That’s because for all their shrieking horror of Christians, double-talking liberals know they’ll never be beheaded by one, or even confronted by them at all beyond the occasional aggrieved letter to the editor of the local fishwrap. Muslims are a different story; piss them off, and they just might kill you. They have done, again and again and again.

Politicians Should Stop Apologizing for Our Constitutional Freedoms Phillip Dennis:

Shame on these lame excuses for Americans! Graham has the audacity to state “free speech is a great idea?” No, Senator Graham, free speech is one of the cornerstone liberties that separate America from the totalitarian controls in countries where citizens suffer with the oppression of communism or sharia law. It is America’s love and defense of individual freedoms and rights that serve as the backbone of our love and defense of liberty.

Yes, Senator Reid, 10 to 20 people have been killed, but they were killed by savage Muslim extremists in Afghanistan who made the decision to murder. Do you hold Jones accountable for the recent murders of 1,000 Christians by Muslims in the Ivory Coast? Murder seems to go hand-in-hand with radical Islam all over the world.

What Pastor Jones did no doubt offend many. But does it differ from William Ayers burning or trampling an American flag? Would Senators Graham and Reid have threatened to hold hearings or restrict the First Amendment if an American Muslim Imam were to burn a Bible? What if Jones burned a Torah? Would they condemn? Of course not! But Christians and Jews are not known to behead and murder innocents when their religion is insulted.  Appeasing savages with the worthless philosophy of ” maybe if we’re nice, they’ll go away” has been proven time and time again to lead to more violence and deaths of innocents.

I have heard many, other than Graham and Reid, state in the past few days that Pastor Jones is responsible for the murders in Afghanistan. Nothing is further from the truth and defending that argument is a great insult to Pastor Jones, the innocents murdered and the First Amendment. It is also a tremendous insult to Islam. Because stating that the burning of a Koran in America is the catalyst for mass murder in Afghanistan basically says that Muslims are not capable of responsible, civil behavior. Pastor Jones is guilty of nothing more than burning a Koran. Whether he was right or wrong is a matter of differing opinion. But every American, even our PC political class, should stand firm and state to the world that Jones, as a citizen of the United States, has every right to burn any book, flag or anything else other than the private property of others that he sees fit.

The predictable reaction from the politically correct, professional apologizers now leading America will do nothing but embolden radical Muslims murderers around the world. The correctly see America as a country that will quickly abandon its most cherished values if the acts committed in Afghanistan, Pakistan or some other Muslim dominated country are sufficiently brutal. What will Senator Graham say when radical Muslims in Afghanistan or Iraq threaten to kill more American soldiers or UN employees unless American women are refused the right to drive or must wear burqas?

America’s individual liberties and Constitutional rights must be protected at all costs

The First Amendment, Korans, and personal responsibility Ed Morrissey:

Whatever anyone else thinks of Terry Jones, he’s not an omnipotent demigod able to control people and rob them of free will.  There is no connection between the act of setting one’s own copy of a book on fire in Florida and a series of murders in Afghanistan.  To argue that they’re connected at all in any legal or moral sense, both of which Graham argued in theory this weekend, is to instantly stratify humanity into those capable of self-control and those incapable of it.

For the latter, law then could not apply to any of their actions.  Criminal responsibility in a free society lies in large part on the concept on mens rea, the intent to act in a criminal matter, and more basically on the ability to form it.  If certain kinds of people are incapable of forming intent, then they cannot be held responsible for their actions.  That kind of construct gives governments every excuse to ignore basic and natural human rights in the interests of “safety,” “security,” and for the purported good of the benighted folk that fall under that rubric.  It’s a dangerous human impulse to make that assumption, and when governments begin applying those assumptions into law, all manner of mischief can and will get official sanction.

The only people responsible for the murders in Afghanistan are the murderers and those who specifically incited them to commit violence, not critics of Islam, society, or the disappearing ozone layer.  We do not need to silence our citizens on the off chance that lunatics might respond to the stimuli; such a standard would silence all speech and especially political and religious debate. 

Obama’s Islamic Envoy Getting a Pass… Again Ben Barrack (This is REALLY important and you need to visit the link to read the whole thing):

The actions of an obscure pastor from a Florida church with a flock numbering in the double digits were met with scorn from our Commander in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, a man with curious ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, who fed far more fuel to Islamic fundamentalists with words he spoke – in Afghanistan – on behalf of the President of the United States, got a pass.

Ann Barnhardt, Culture Hero Roger's Rules


Dennis Miller vents on islam, and treating muslims like babies Infidels Are Cool:

“Listen, Terry Jones is a moron,” Miller said. “I’m surprised he can get a fire started. But how that leads to guys getting their heads cut off overseas is crap. I’m getting sick of treating Islam like Fabergé eggs, where some moron in the Everglades lights up a book and you decapitate people overseas and people say Terry Jones started it they can start lighting Bibles up tomorrow. They could go ‘Fahrenheit 451’ with ‘Atlas Shrugged,’ my favorite book, and I would shake my head and go people are crazy. But this whole thing about I have got to get out and sever somebody’s head from their body. That’s crazy.”

Ban Koran-burning? If Islam becomes a protected faith, free expression will be no more Jeffrey Kuhner:

The cultural double standard and hypocrisy is appalling. Christianity is routinely denigrated in America - and across the Middle East. When a crucifix is dipped in a jar of urine, it is art. When cartoons mock the Prophet Muhammad, it is blasphemous and dangerous. In other words, because Christians are genuinely peaceful and will not engage in jihad, their faith can be systematically mocked. Radical Islamists, however, are able to determine the boundaries of legitimate expression. Our leaders are now bowing to the twisted whims of violent Muslim fanatics. Islamism trumps the Constitution.

Moreover, Muslim-majority societies are deeply hostile toward non-Muslims - especially, Christians and Jews. Bibles are banned in Saudi Arabia; when confiscated, many of them are burned or tossed into the garbage. Construction of churches and synagogues is prohibited. In Egypt, churches have been razed to the ground and Coptic Christians massacred. In Iraq, since the fall of Saddam Hussein, half of the Christian population has been exterminated or expelled; the other half lives in mortal fear. Iran executes Muslim converts to Christianity.

Shariah law - the legal basis of most Islamic states - is a form of religious apartheid, systematically classifying Christians and Jews as third-class citizens. Christophobia and anti-Semitism are rampant in the Muslim world. America’s political class, however, refuses to speak out.

I saved the best for last:

OPEN LETTER TO GEN. PETRAEUS (please repost) 1389 Blog Counterjihad!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AND RE-POST
From 1389blog.com/

OPEN LETTER TO GEN. PETRAEUS
“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.”
– Gen. David Petraeus

General, I ask you this: what in hell is your “mission” if We the People jeopardize it by exercising our unalienable First Amendment rights in our own homeland? Is your “mission” to defend our rights against foreign enemies, or to defend foreign enemies against our rights?

You made your choice, and you justified it by asserting that you and those under your command have been taken hostage by our terrorist enemy. The ransom demand you obediently delivered to us is that we must submit to your captor’s restrictions against our rightful freedom on our own property, or they’ll kill you.

I remind you and your captors that we do not negotiate with terrorists.

And I remind you that you are the most respected general in the present day, commanding in the most powerful military in all of history, during the most justifiable war in the last seventy years. So please either remember your priorities and slaughter your captors, or resign in disgrace so that we may replace you with a warrior. And if you resign, please do so right along with President Obama, Gen. Caldwell, Pentagon Spokesman Lapan, Sec. of State Clinton, Atty. Gen. Holder, NATO Sec. Rasmussen and all others in all branches of government and in all alliances who echoed your request, no matter whether they did so mindlessly or with surrender aforethought.

Our own military leaders asking us to forsake our freedom is un-American. Asking us to do it to on behalf of the comfort of our enemy in a time of war is treasonous. And asking us to do it in the name of the alleged cowardice of those under your command is a shocking and unthinkable act of surrender which I still don’t have all the words for.

But I do have the action for it. We the People will force the issue right here and now. If peacefully exercising our unalienable rights on our own property here in our own homeland endangers you, then we will endanger you.

We will burn the Koran for freedom and post the videos for all the world to see. We will be overt or covert, we will be named or anonymous, we will be sparse or numerous – but we will be unstoppable, and eventually we will be effective.

We will do this because you have no goddamned right to sell out our freedom for the sake of our enemy’s sensitivity. We will do it because you more than have the power to defend yourselves against that enemy if only you would use it. We will do it because facing danger to defend our rightful freedom is why we pay you, train you, equip you, promote you, appoint you, deploy you, and – formerly! – revere you.

You work for us, General, not for our enemy. And we will regain control over you and over this war from the command center of our own backyards. We will destroy any of your alliances of appeasement which would restrict our constitutional rights, and which are therefore inherently unsustainable without our permanent surrender. We will force the military to defend yourselves and us as you were deployed to do, or to come home in defeat and lock the door behind you.

Whether accidentally through stupidity or deliberately through manipulation, it’s been made clear that We the People have the power to force this issue with nothing more than a book, a match and a video recording.

And so we will.

A right not exercised under duress is a right that has been surrendered. And should you and those above you continue to choose surrender as the course of the military, that will be your own course, your own bargain with the devil, and your own shame – not that of We the People. If free individuals are to remain free, they must defy all oppression at all times, without special exceptions. America was founded on defiance! And some of us remain a proudly defiant people to this day. So if your “mission” is to build understanding in the world, then make sure they understand that about us.

When we can burn our own copies of the Koran on our own soil without credible threats from jihadists or appeasement of those threats from our military and our government, then we will gladly stop burning them.

We may live in occupied territory psychologically, but we do not yet live in occupied territory legally or physically. We will do as we please, and we will continue to expect all branches of our government to secure our right to do it.

I remind you that securing our rights is the only legitimate reason that governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

And not everybody among the governed consents to surrendering our rights to terrorists. We will ensure that you either join us in resisting them, or get out of the way.

Let’s roll.

Chuck
1389blog.com

I cannot afford to spend my food money on an evil book which urges it's followers to kill or enslave me, and even if I did, I personally would not want my money to be wasted buying one as that just gives the purveyors of evil more money to continue their conquest of domination, but I can promise you that I think the koran deserves to be treated with the exact same level of respect which those fanatical frenzied mobs show to non-muslims (and even fellow muslims deemed 'not muslim enough') around the world. So while I may not be burning the damned things, I fully support the right of my fellow Americans to do so.

Neither perpetually offended islamorageboys nor overpaid gutless crapweasels have the authority to dictate to Americans how we may express ourselves on our own soil. Free speech is a right, not a privilege.


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