This is the first time that I have ever kept a blog..I'm not entirely sure how to go about doing this but am excited to figure it out! That said, please bear with me as I get the hang of this.

I came across an interesting article this morning... Apparently, the Dove World Outreach Center, an evangelical church based in Gainesville, Florida, has been rumored to have plans to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to commemorate the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. "Muslims consider the Quran to be the word of God and insist that it be treated with the utmost respect, along with any printed material containing its verses or the name of Allah or the Prophet Muhammad. Any intentional damage or show of disrespect to the Quran is deeply offensive." (Dozier) This demonstration would undoubtedly cause much anger among Muslims. General Petraeus warned that images of a burning Quran could be used to incite anti-American sentiments and could potentially be very dangerous for Americans worldwide. 


I think that General Petraeus was right in warning against this demonstration. While I understand some of the emotions that are playing into this church's decision to burn the Quran, doing so would do some serious damage to our image abroad. Some may argue that the Dove center has the Constitutional right to do this. However, since exercising this right to demonstrate could cause more harm than good, the Dove World Outreach Center should not be allowed to go through with this.


If you're interested, here is a link to the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/06/AR2010090600589.html