Let’s try to put this whole Koran-burning issue into context.
First, this is the unconscionably self-serving work of a Gainesville yahoo masquerading as a red neck preacher with a couple of dozen gun-toting, congregant cretins. Ultimately, Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach Center didn’t follow through on his burn-a-Koran gimmick last summer — on the anniversary of 9/11/. This time Jones and DOC did — on March 20.
Second, last time the media was an enabler. Both print and electronic. They couldn’t get enough of this blatantly self-promoting dolt. “Press conference? We’re there.” Another lemming outing that benefits no one worth benefiting.
This time, to its credit, the media passed on the red-meat offering.
Third, the American media pass became moot as agenda-driven, Internet-savvy jihadists and wannabes still got the word out. And Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who might be as unpopular there as here, made public note of it. Once again, he proved that he knows how to play the Uncle Scapegoat card, especially with anti-American sentiment ratcheting up.
Fourth, the net result of the burn-a-Koran-in-America hotline was the enragement of the usual suspects. But much more than effigy burnings and insulting signage resulted. Insurgent provocateurs easily stirred an eminently stir-able mob into storming a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan. They then hunted down and murdered seven foreign U.N. workers. Not Americans, but close enough — including four Nepalese.
Fifth, this is a loathsome, barbaric reminder of the civilizational conflict we’re embedded in. This is about religion too easily perverted and priorities too grossly warped. To this day, images of suicide-bomber carnage and horrific beheadings don’t bring nearly the visceral “street” reaction as an unflattering Mohammad cartoon or a torched Koran.
And sixth, to burn a Koran is to be within the protection of the American legal system. Not unlike burning the flag. It’s an extension of one of those core, if untimely, principles — allowing freedom of expression for the unpopular and objectionable. All that President Barack Obama or Attorney General Eric Holder can do is make the rhetorical case that we find Koran-burning repugnant, culturally insulting and worthy of condemnation. But we can only imagine how sacrosanct First Amendment rationales play in the Middle East: To not outlaw is to condone.
But as we well know, there are First Amendment limits. The classic yelling of “Fire!” in a crowded theater. Even if an Adam Sandler movie is playing. The right of a pro-Castro crowd to assemble and march through Little Havana. It’s clear-and-present-danger stuff. It’s also common sense stuff.
Too bad it doesn’t apply to Gainesville Koran burnings. As sure as there is an Internet, Muslim fanatics and Arab “street” tinderboxes, we knew there would be a propaganda bonanza resulting. Such that it would put lives — American and others — at risk. Such that it would result in good people dying.
“Clear and present danger” — in a clearly dangerous world — must mean more than a movie-theater abstraction. The U.S. Constitution must not be an unwitting enabler of mayhem and murder.