Pastor Hosting International Burn A Qur’an Day: We Have Nothing Against Muslims
So recently, Charles blogged about the Christian fundamentalist nutjobs who are planning International Burn a Qur’an Day for the upcoming anniversary of the September 11th attacks.
Well, the pastor of said church has gone on CNN and told us all that they don’t have anything against Muslims at all. No, really:
CNN host Rick Sanchez invited Jones on his show yesterday to ask him about the inflammatory action. When Sanchez pressed Jones about why he would try to anger the world’s Muslims by burning their sacred text, the evangelical pastor replied, “Well, for one thing, to us, the book is not sacred,” provoking laughter from the CNN host.
Jones later went on to explain, “What we are also doing by the burning of the Qu’ran, we’re saying stop, stop to Islam, stop to Islamic law, stop to brutality. We have nothing against Muslims, they are welcome in our country.” When Sanchez asked him how he would feel if Muslims burned the Bible, Jones admitted he wouldn’t like it but emphasized that it was his “right” to burn the Islamic text because “we live in America”:
SANCHEZ: Do you know how many Muslims there are in the world?
JONES: I think there are 1.5 billion.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. I ask you that because that’s a very big number. Why would you want to do this to 1.5 billion people by burning their most sacred book? That’s crazy.
JONES: Well, for one thing, to us, the book is not sacred.
SANCHEZ: But it is to them, it’s sacred to them. […]
JONES: What we’re also doing by the burning of the Quran on 9/11 is we’re saying stop. Stop to Islam. Stop to Islamic law. Stop to brutality. We have nothing against Muslims, they are welcome in our country. […]
SANCHEZ: How would you feel if a Muslim said to you, what you just said to them? I have no problem with you Mr. Christian, you’re welcome in my country, but I’m burning your Bible.
JONES: I would not like it. But it’s our right. We live in America!
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