http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2011/09/30/va_mosque_has_mixed_reaction_to_al_awlakis_death_1317400842/

I wish he would have returned to the states to stand trial for being a co-conspirator; but he preferred to wage jihad from afar.

Behavior like Jone’s is meant to provoke, one way or the other is fine…that is the point.

Commenting on it beyond saying he is absurd just feeds the narrative further…gives him and those who wish to react to him more oxygen.

There seems to be a demand that bad behavior needs to be condemned first before any other responses can be made.

I think that puts people into boxes. Say what you want…respectfully.

“I don’t agree that one needs to predicate comments with condemnation of Jones.”

If you don’t want to be misunderstood as agreeing with what Jones did, then you should. You seriously can’t see how your statements could easily be construed as supporting Jones, rather than simply disagreeing with the hyperbole about what Jones did?

which btw, you still haven’t clarified your opinion about what Jones did.

“Free speech is a right, no matter how absurdly carried out; condemning it makes no sense.”

It makes perfect sense. While I support Jones’ right to do what he did, I do not support his actions, in fact I condemn them. And recognizing that a lot of people have a hard time understanding that distinction (esp. with statements like the one you made about it), clarifying the issue makes sense to me.

Further, YOU were just complaining in another thread about how christians are misrepresented. Well, when christians don’t stand up and say “Jones does not represent my religious beliefs” then people like Jones end up being the only “voices of christianity” that the world hears.

Thanks for checking in on this.

I don’t agree that one needs to predicate comments with condemnation of Jones.

Free speech is a right, no matter how absurdly carried out; condemning it makes no sense.

I am one who believes that censoring ourselves, even for absurdity, in an effort to keep violent haters from acting out is a failed enterprise.

These people hate and kill because they want to…

Please refer to the article I cite: they hate and threaten good liberals who are just practicing their craft…and liberals are understandably intimidated and go into hiding.

“Blaming the brutal murder of 20 innocents and assaults on 80 other victims on Pastor Jones for his Koran burning is absurd.”

As I mentioned on another thread, Jones is certainly not directly responsible for the violence in Afghanistan. However, his reckless, offensive act did contribute to it. Further he has greatly contributed to the negative image muslims (particularly outside the US) have of americans (and christians). the muslim world will certainly know about the US christian minister who burned the quran. but how many US religious leaders, who condemned Jones for what he did, will those muslims know about?

Think about your own comments on Jones, David. the 1st thing you said about it (here anyway) wasn’t “what Jones did was wrong and unchristian”, but rather “what Jones did wasn’t as bad as people are making it out to be.”

There is no question that Terry Jones is an opportunist. Yet what would one call those Muslims who both incite and commit violence at the slightest provocation? It is worth remembering that when Newsweek falsely reported a Koran being flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay in 2005, 15 people were killed in rioting. Former Seattle Weekly cartoonist Molly Norris has been forced into hiding–in the United States–after she became the target of a death threat following her “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” satire for that newspaper.

Found here: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0411/ahlert.php3

(He gets Senator Reid’s constituency wrong, Nevada, not Arizona).

Hasan’s move toward violent Islamist extremism “was on full display to his superiors and colleagues during his military medical training,” according to the report’s findings. One instructor referred to Hasan as “a ticking time bomb.”

“Not only was no action taken to discipline or discharge him, but also his Officer Evaluation Reports sanitized his obsession with violent Islamist extremism into praiseworthy research on counterterrorism.”

Found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42017230/ns/us_news-security/

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/gunman-shouting-allah-akbar-kills-us-airmen-germany/story?id=13037467

There is a special “weighing” of correlations which can now be done to talk about how various factors “influence” events.

Care to give a short lesson about that “weighing” ?

The advent of psychology and sociology as professions and areas of scientific inquiry promoted this focus; but it never delineated the causes well.

There is a special “weighing” of correlations which can now be done to talk about how various factors “influence” events.