Terry Jones is the evangelical whose grandstanding and staged burning of the Koran has got him in a lot of hot water. He should drown in it, no less than other clerics who think that America should take political cues from their faith. But some people, especially atheists, have suggested that he be tried for incitement, reckless endangerment and even murder. Why? Because some nutcases on the other side of the globe used his provocation to set them off on innocents, namely UN staffers in Afghanistan. That logic, to charge Jones, is absurd, but there's nothing particularly defensible about Jones.
I am impressed witht he fact that Jones prepared his act for maximum effect. He could be considered a symbolic terrorist, manipulating media to outrage, insult and injure a particular class of people. But that's only a moral and ethical definition - we are fortunate that it is not a legal definition. Where would it stop? As shrill as this act is, it is very little more than a staged act by one individual. It is not a political movement by many people over a long period of time. If one were to bend the rules of causality to accuse Terry Jones of murder, how many executives of Planned Parenthood should be next?
In the end, Jones made people of a certain mindset do what they were aiming to do, none of which is justifyable. I am stuck with an analogy of Malcolm X whispering in Emmett Till's ear - "Hey, go whistle at that white girl." You can see how vile that would be of Malcolm to send Till to some dangerous fate, but you still couldn't accuse him of murder. Murderers are murderers, period. But those who send innocents off to murderous environments are far from being guilt free.
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