Jens 'n' Frens


	Jens 'n' Frens Idle thoughts of a relatively libertarian Republican in Cambridge, MA, and whomever he invites. Mostly political. "A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures." -- Daniel Webster

Friday, September 10, 2010 ::: So is the Koran-burning off or on? I've lost track. I think I first heard of this story through Volokh, a bit before this point about how he and CAIR are playing off of each other. CAIR, though, isn't alone in making the point that this could stoke violence, in particular among those our troops are facing. I don't actually think much of that point, though. The fact that we have the right to do something obviously doesn't mean that we should (a point that Andrew McCarthy uses to tie this story to Cordoba house), and many people have tried to persuade the pastor of this. But if the fact that we are harboring a crank who likes to burn books causes some people to attack our troops, I'm not inclined to think of those people as the sort of people we should compromise with. I'm more inclined to think of them as the reason we have troops. We shouldn't condemn this act because it will offend Muslims who will want to kill us, we should condemn it because it will offend hundreds of millions - maybe billions - of Muslims who don't want to kill us. As President Obama noted in his press conference today, Bush always made it clear that we were not at war with Islam; in fact, many Muslims are on our side. It is their sensibilities we should be sympathetic to. A few extras: Althouse highlights the distinction between burning one's own books and confiscating books from others; while I share with the Washington Post writer to whom she responds the visceral reaction against any kind of book destruction, Althouse's distinction is, in fact, quite important. A friend of Glenn Reynolds laments the attention that this is getting relative to the many acts of charity performed by churches across the country. MSNBC invited the pastor onto a show, where the host behaved more poorly than he did. Labels: Islam, MSNBC, philosophical issues in democracy ::: posted by Steven at 11:47 PM Comments: Post a Comment