Not quite a year ago a preacher down in Florida by the name of Terry Jones made headlines by threatening to burn a Qur’an, well-known by now as the holy book of the Muslim faith. Well recently he's been back in the news thanks to his publicly putting said holy book "On Trial", finding it guilty, and as it's "punishment" burning it up in a fire.
In a move that surprised no one with an age or IQ over about ten, a small group of Muslim extremists used the action as an excuse to commit violence and murder.
Sadly the response to the whole situation from a great many pseudo Progressives is equally unsurprising. Said response pretty much boiling down to "It's all Terry Jones' fault."
The response not only emboldens terrorist organizations, but also serves to completely delegitimize the Progressive movement in the eyes of most Americans.
Is there any question that Jones' is a publicity seeking asshole, with no respect for any view other than his own? Of course not. Nor is there any doubt that burning any groups "Holy Book" is in execrable taste. Personally to me book burning always has, and always will be a disgusting reminder of the kind of narrow-minded thinking that comes out of places like Nazi Germany. There is absolutely no doubt in the mind of any rational person that Jones' would be the first to rail against anyone deciding to burn a copy of the book that he considers sacred.
The problem is that something being in poor taste, or ill-considered, or just plain stupid doesn't automatically make it "wrong". And further more even if it were in either the legal or moral sense wrong, that does not make the decision by a group of radical religious nuts to use his actions as an excuse to commit murder, in any way shape or form, rational, right, or even remotely defensible.
Rather, what the Afghani mob, incited by Mullah Mohammed Shah Adeli did, is text-book terrorism. They used violence against people who were not even remotely related to the person who committed an act they did not like, to attempt to send a message.
That message has been heard loud and clear. The message is a fairly simple and disgusting one. "Say or do anything that we do not like and we will murder as many people as we can get our hands on in retaliation."
And do Progressives stand tall and proud and reply with a message of our own, saying that there is never any justification for the murder of innocents, least of all the fact that someone made a statement or committed a symbolic act that you happen to disagree with?
We do not.
Instead we simper about how awful Terry Jones is, and how he shouldn't have done that, and how he's endangering our troops, and a trillion and one other hoary old clichés.
Well here's the simple brutal truth of the matter. Terry Jones Did Not Kill Any ONE. Those Afghans did. Period.
To lose sight of that fact, to suggest even indirectly that we should capitulate to those who seek to use terroristic violence to achieve their goals is in fact to abandon true Progressive principles. To carry on about the wrongs done to someone like Liu Xiaobo because of his governments denial of his right to free speech (a right that most Progressives believe should be held as universal) while insisting that Terry Jones was in the wrong for exercising his, is quite simply two-faced.
And to make matters worse it further distances Progressivism from making any kind of real common cause with the very people we most need to reach out to. Mainstream, working class Americans. It gives us the appearance of caring more about not upsetting a bunch of Muslim extremists than we care about true freedom for all. Freedom to speak one's mind, and freedom to live, free from the fear of the kind of violence those extremists perpetrated.
The extremists have sent their message. And now we must send ours. That even though we may disagree with Jones actions we defend his right to commit them. That we do not view the actions of the Afghans who murdered those people as legitimate in any way, shape, or form. And that there is never any justification of any kind for mass murder. To do any less is to give aid and comfort to the enemies of true freedom abroad, and the enemies of Progressivism here at home.
Keep The Faith My Brothers And Sisters!