What to make of this latest Koran-burning incident? More context.
First, yahoo Gainesville preacher Terry Jones and his sparse following of gun-toting, congregant cretins are at it again. He didn’t follow through on his burn-a-Koran gimmick last summer–on the anniversary of 9/11. But last month he did.
Second, the lemming-like media was an enabler last time. Print and electronic. “Press conference? We’re there.” This time, to its rare credit, the media passed on the red-meat offering.
Third, 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 Jones’ Koran torching. Once again, Karzai 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 hotline was the enragement of the usual suspects. But much more than effigy burnings resulted. Insurgent provocateurs, hard line mullahs and likely local Taliban stirred an eminently stir-able mob into storming a U.N. compound in Northern Afghanistan. They then hunted down and brutally murdered seven foreign U.N. workers. Not Americans, but close enough: a Swede, a Norwegian, a Romanian and four Nepalese.
Fifth, this was a loathsome, barbaric reminder of the civilizational conflict we’re embedded in. This is about religion too easily perverted and priorities too often warped. To this day, images of suicide-bomber carnage and horrific beheadings don’t bring nearly the visceral reaction of outrage as an unflattering Mohammed cartoon or a seared 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, hallowed principles: the allowance of 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 they and probably every American who doesn’t belong to the Dove Outreach Center find Koran-burning repugnant and culturally insulting and worthy of condemnation.
But you can only imagine how sacrosanct First Amendment rights and 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 non-right of a pro-Castro crowd to assemble and march through Little Havana. It’s clear-and-present-danger stuff. Clearly.
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, there would–we knew–be a propaganda bonanza resulting from Jones’ incendiary act. Such that it would put lives–American and others–at guaranteed 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 murder.