Joe Klein Reserves Spot in Hell for Koran-burning Pastor Who's As 'Murderous' As 'Suicide Bombers'

April 4th, 2011 6:09 PM

Burning a copy of the Koran is morally equivalent to flying a plane into the World Trade Center and equally eternally damnable.

That's essentially the fatwa of Time magazine's Joe Klein in an April 1 blog post at the magazine's Swampland blog.

Klein was condemning Florida pastor Terry Jones's "trial" and subsequent burning of a Koran which allegedly have sparked a murderous rampage against UN workers in Afghanistan last week:

[T]here should be no confusion about this: Jones's act was murderous as any suicide bomber's. If there is a hell, he's just guaranteed himself an afterlifetime membership.

One has to wonder if Klein would say the same thing about a taxpayer-funded artist who photographed a crucifix soaked in a jar of urine or portrayed the Virgin Mary in elephant dung.


Oh wait, that's right, those demonstrations didn't result in angry Catholic mobs killing completely innocent third parties. Heck, they didn't even result in the death or injury of the "artists" responsible.

Yes, Jones's actions were either thoughtless or callously disregarding of the potential deadly consequences to innocent third parties, particularly U.S. troops, international aid workers, and any and all Christians in the Muslim world who on top of persecution for their faith may now be considered guilty by association to Jones.

That being said, Klein fails to hold morally culpable the murderous thugs who take vengeance in the name of Allah. Klein rightly considers Jones's provocative burning of the Koran as "un-Christian," but fails to slam as un-Islamic the act of killing people in the name of Allah.

Isn't Allah big enough to exact vengeance for himself? Klein clearly thinks, if there is a God, that he's big enough to deal with Jones for his actions. So why not a pronouncement of anathema on the thugs who are personally responsible for bloodshed in Afghanistan?