Without the willing complicity of others who publicize his theatrics, people such as Terry Jones can only influence a very small group of people in his immediate vicinity. Now that he’s had a taste of what he may very well believe is real power, he’ll continue to indulge in behavior that stirs outrage. We need to stop giving publicity to him and others like him.

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How Freedom of Speech works in cases like this still matters.  Terry Jones simply gets to be a case study.  Jones is a dick.  But my biggest problem with him is the fact that he’s a Christian burning the Koran.  I should be allowed to burn the Koran if I care to waste my time or use that as an aid in expressing my values.  Jones should have that right too.  And he is basically correct, burning a book doesn’t justify killing as a reaction.

Jones is a villain.  He’s not the wisest person to watch.  But he is now in the middle of a current debate about speech and how it should be used.  That’s a valuable debate to have.

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A principle only has value if it remains true when tested. If one espouses the right to free speech, for everyone not just ones own free speech, one must also support a persons right to speak no matter how distasteful their words might be.
Mr Jones is a scary man, but he has a right to his opinion in a country that recognises the right to free speech and that right should be defended. It is horrible that people were killed, but they weren’t killed because Mr Jones burnt a koran, they were killed because the killers were whipped into a frenzy under the guise of supporting their faith by people who had a political agenda. It is they that should be held to account.

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The problem is not the fool burning the book, the problem is the agressive reaction to the fool burning the book.
When will these people learn that the non-religious are not required to have the same reverence of religion as the religious. (Even though the book burner here is a believer).
If someone rejects evolution and they wish to burn a copy of ‘The Origin Of Species’ - go ahead. It doesn’t de-value the ideas contained within the book. You won’t see scientists taking to the streets to rampage and burn.

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These so-called “Pastors,” “Scholars,” and religious fanatics fail to come together to address the real issues. They are all “religious political militants” pursuing their own selfish agenda: to preserve themselves in power under the excuse of their faith-based dogma, ideas and actions.
All these Holy Books are nothing more than compilations of man-made stories, so out-of-touch with the present real world, it is amazing that millions (billions) are still being fed these narratives.
We need to revise these books and come-up with a newer version; one with the best unified compilation of the best, up-to-date (current) moral “gems” of all time, based on reason (not faith), and start fresh.
Humanity is in grave danger. Our best chance for survival is to abandon the “myths” and embrace reason. It will not happen suddenly (I wish it would), but (hopefully) gradually. “Cogito ergo sum.”

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Sophos01, check this out:

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/ac-grayling-tackles-the-good-book-20110420-1dno6.html

It’s the non-religious “bible.”

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Jones is a twit.  It’s unfortuntate that he represents a religious extremism of his own kind because it otherwise clouds a valid issue.  If his actions are viewed merely as exercising speech, and not some petty religion versus religion conflict, he has acted out of principle, which must be supported.  We cannot have a world were extremists are allowed to use murder as a kind of religious blackmail.  We cannot allow the standard for worldwide conduct to be established by the least rational and most radical.  The response to the murders should be justice within their own rules of law, but also complete defiance from everyone else.  Burn Korans, burn bibles, burn flags—not becuase these things should be destroyed, but because the act itself is an expression of freedom, expression, tolerance of ideas, and the throwing off of establishment that is necessary for evolution of thought for everyone inside and outside of the institutions that bring us these books and flags.  They are symbols only, which cannot be allowed to act as iron bars of a cage meant to imprison our minds and our spirits, and to control our actions. 

The murders that followed Jones’ book burning tend to validate his actions.  The outrage of one person, nevermind eleven, losing life because of the burning of a book, is exactly why burning symbols is important.  What if we lived in a world where sombody burned a Koran and nobody was murdered as a result?

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Sophos01
“We need to revise these books and come-up with a newer version;..”
On this I agree. In fact any organization that in its literature or holy books has language that leads to infringement of the human rights of others, i.e., terrorist attacks, punitive actions, etc., or declares that their group is destined to rule the world, should be required to remove all such language! Or be declared a terrorist organization.

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