Petraeus: Koran burning plan will endanger US troops

MacGuffin

Forum Addict
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
8,329
Location
Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Car(s)
'17 Ford Mustang GT Fastback
The top US commander in Afghanistan has warned that troops' lives will be in danger if an American church sticks to its plan to burn copies of the Koran.

Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world".

Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Centre, plans to put copies of the holy book in a bonfire to mark this week's anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

There have already been protests in Afghanistan and Indonesia.

The US embassy in Kabul issued a statement condemning the plans by the non-denominational Dove World Outreach Centre in Gainesville, Florida.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Gen Petraeus said in a statement to US media. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems.

"Not just here, but everywhere in the world, we are engaged with the Islamic community," added Gen Petraeus, who heads a 150,000-strong Nato force against a Taliban-led insurgency.

Lt Gen William Caldwell, the commander of the Nato training mission in Afghanistan, told CNN: "It's their holy book, so when somebody says that they're going to destroy that and cause a desecration to something that's very sacred to them, it's already stirred up a lot of discussion and concern amongst the people."

In Kabul on Monday, about 500 protesters chanted "long live Islam" and "death to America" as they set fire to an effigy of Mr Jones.

The controversy comes at a time of already heated debate in the US over a proposal to build a mosque and Islamic cultural centre two streets from Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 attacks, in New York.

In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Jones acknowledged Gen Petraeus's concerns, but added: "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats."

The planned protest by Mr Jones's previously little-known 50-member Florida church, whose website labels Islam "violent and oppressive", has prompted protests elsewhere, too.

Thousands of mostly Muslim demonstrators rallied around Indonesia last weekend.

Claims that US soldiers have desecrated the Koran in both Afghanistan and Iraq have caused bloodshed in the past.

There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.

And further lives were lost in Afghan riots in 2005 when Newsweek magazine printed a story alleging that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11209738

Wouldn't it be funny, if Mr Jones tripped over in the attempt to fling a book into the bonfire, causing him to fall forward and burst in flames, too?
 
Well, don't you see? They prey Jesus but have replaced the principles of the New Testament (e.g. forgiveness) with the principles of the Old Testament (e.g. eye for an eye). Stupid morons don't even know their own religion.
 
There were deadly protests in Afghanistan in 2008, when it emerged that a US soldier deployed to Iraq riddled a copy of the holy book with bullets.

Now it's really a holey book! :drums:
 
This Pastor is an reckless, non-bible following, idiot and those who follow him are WAY off track.
 
Petraues is spekaing out common sense here.
 
This Pastor is an reckless, non-bible following, idiot and those who follow him are WAY off track.

You could say the same thing about muslims and muslim terrorists.

Fanatics, no matter if Christian, Jewish or Muslim, are all the same. Catholic terrorism (as in "the IRA", which is as much about catholicism vs. protestantism as it is about Irish independence) is the same as muslim terrorism and, by the way, some Arabs gatering to burn bibles would certainly cause outrage among christians of all confessions ranging from the radical catholic/evangelist to the god-fearing granny in small-town Bavaria, Italy or Poland.

It was quite fun to see how, at a friend's wedding, her conservative catholic grandparents and the conservative muslim parents of a friend of her got along brilliantly: "The most important thing is to defend family values! Family has to come first, before minor things like personal happiness and fulfillment".

Imagine the following scenario:
We task the Pope, a born-again christian from the US and a radical islamist iman with taliban ties to come up with a new rulebook for society. They can create any law they want, that governs any aspect of life they want to regulate. The only constraint given is that respect for each other's religion must be part of the rules. The rules will come in effect worldwide at noon the day after they finished them.

I'm sure they'd be done with an comprehensive ruleset within one evening-long meeting. It will be based on "decency", "family values" and "morals", i.e.:
-Death to all gays
-And jews
-And divorcees
-And people engaging in extramartial sex
-And women who had an abortion

-Away with women's rights!
-Away with women's vote!
-Away with child's rights!
-Away with drugs! (except for use in religions ceremony, of course, see: holy smoke and wine)

-A return of the father as the patriarc of the family in front of the law
-A return of arranged marriages, after all, only the parents know what's good for the child

All this points are on the more-or-less hidden agenda of all three of the groups mentioned above. Which should not be of much surprise, seeing that islamic doctrine accepts Jesus as a "minor prophet", just not THE prophet that Mohammed is, while there's a strong arab/islamic influence in medieval christian teaching which still forms the base of both protestant and catholic thought.

Good thing religions extremists don't have that much power, as far as i am concerned - eventhough i am a Catholic myself.
 
Last edited:
You could say the same thing about muslims and muslim terrorists.

Yup, and I have... several times in fact.
 
I'll celebrate his right to burn the Koran by burning a Bible.
 
In a statement to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Jones acknowledged Gen Petraeus's concerns, but added: "We must send a clear message to the radical element of Islam. We will no longer be controlled and dominated by their fears and threats."
I wonder what it's like to be so catastrophically ignorant that when one of the most important four-star Generals of our time tells you specifically that what you want to do will endanger US troops and damage the decade-long mission that's going on, you categorically ignore him.
 
This Pastor is an reckless, non-bible following, idiot and those who follow him are WAY off track.

I recall reading something about the pastor supporting the Westboro Baptist Church. If that's the case, I doubt he really cares if troops are killed because of his actions.

Incidentally, I also read something about this pastor being arrested for child pornography! So he's obviously a sick fuck.
 
Well, if someone buys a book and decides to burn it, thats their choice.
Why does all these islamists get upset, its not like he stole their personal book!

Oh and btw, I think this is a very good strip!
http://img825.imageshack.**/img825/2016/20245494660895314796140.jpg
 
Last edited:
That's one smart American Christian. What happened to turning the other cheek?

I think he skipped that part.
 
Well, if someone buys a book and decides to burn it, thats their choice.
Why does all these islamists get upset, its not like he stole their personal book!

Imagine the outrage on this forum, if some crazy billionaire was to buy a collection of the rarest vintage cars in the world -- and then flattens them by driving a tank over them, because he thinks cars are a product of the devil. It's his property, right? He can treat it like he wants. Nobody will care, won't they?

Yeah, right...

You should be able to see, that this is not a matter of personal property and how good or bad you treat it :rolleyes:

The cartoon is rather good. But unfortunately it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread...
 
Last edited:
Imagine the outrage on this forum, if some crazy billionaire was to buy a collection of the rarest vintage cars in the world -- and then flattens them by driving a tank over them, because he thinks cars are a product of the devil. It's his property, right? He can treat it like he wants. Nobody will care, won't they?

Yeah, right...

You should be able to see, that this is not a matter of personal property and how good or bad you treat it :rolleyes:

The cartoon is rather good. But unfortunately it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread...
Ehm if someone did to that to their vintage cars, of course people on this forum would have some harsh words to say about it, but they wouldnt go out and rage in the streets, burning the flag of the country that (previous) carowner hails from and attack random tourists from that country.

And yes, the cartoon is about how the islamists overreact. Which also goes for the burning of books.
 
Last edited:
Because Christians would react differently to organized Bible burnings in an islamic state? :-D

I don't think the muslim community would even find out if someone decides to burn his Koran. Just like no one would give a shit if some pseudo-satanic goth teen uses a bible to light his barbecue. The problem is that these people do not burn it because it's some random book that happens to be a sacred symbol to some, but because it is a sacred symbol that happens to be available in paperback form. This christian nutjobs do this solely to piss of islamic nutjobs.

Moral of the story: Religions nutjobs, no matter of which religion, are a problem and have much too much power in the christian as well as the muslim world.

EDIT: @kurthest's reply: I bet they'd react just the same. Maybe minus the flag-burning but with calls for a military strike instead, but basically the same way.

On top of that i think the cartoon is not about how islamists overreact, but about religions bigotry.
 
Last edited:
Because Christians would react differently to organized Bible burnings in an islamic state? :-D

Well, I dont like christians either, but I dont think they would react anywhere close to the way islamists react.
 
Top