Obviously that is not an original quote. It does, however, apply to some recent events in Florida and in Afghanistan. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air posted an article today about Pastor Terry Jones, who burned a Koran in Florida. An Afghan mob then attacked and killed some United Nations workers saying that it was because Pastor Jones burned the Koran.
I'm not a big fan of Koran burning--I think it's a little dumb for many reasons. It really doesn't prove a point, and it just seems to provide an excuse for bad behavior. However, I do not feel that murder is an appropriate response.
Ed Morrissey points out:
"Interestingly, I had a conversation about this with a family member yesterday. While I agreed that Jones was a publicity hound looking for attention, that doesn't make him responsible for murder. The only people responsible for murders are those who commit them, and those who specifically incite them to kill. Any other position eventually wipes out free speech, free religious practice, and freedom altogether. If we held others responsible for the acts of every nutcase whose violent reactions may or may not have connections to something they did or said, we would have no speech at all -- a point we made repeatedly during the Left's Loughner frenzy, which they conveniently forgot during the Madison protests."
One aspect of Sharia Law, which Muslims institute in countries they control, is the severe limitation on free speech. Criticizing Islam can have a death sentence attached to it. That is not the way we run the government here. Pastor Jones' burning of the Koran may not have been smart or tactful, but under American law, he does have the right to do that. The fact that murderous people would use that act as an excuse to kill innocent people says more about them than it does about Pastor Jones. If we don't learn to speak up now and exercise our right to free speech, we may well lose it. The radical Muslims are a murderous group of people, but we cannot let that cause us to lose our right to free speech.
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