Burning the Koran

Recently it has come to my attention that Muslims have protested against the recent burning of the Koran by a pastor in the U.S.  Some are even going so far as to call for the prosecution of Terry Jones, the culprit, and some of these protests have turned violent.  One Fox News commenter, Sean Hannity I believe, pointed out that this would put some of our soldiers overseas in danger.

In response to this one YouTube user going by the name of Thunderfoot has suggested that many people should download copies of the Koran and destroy them in protest.  He noted that mass protest of this sort had the effect of protecting our free speech.  He pointed out that when a handful of Danish cartoon artists depicted Mohammed, then their lives were put in danger, but when many people did it, there were too many targets.  Suddenly it became safe.

An opponent of Thunderfoot, DawahFilms, has said that the cartoons of Mohammed were insulting, which is correct, and that the people involved didn't know what freedom really was, which was not.  I would like to put down a few of my thoughts on the subject here.

First I will respond to the accusation against Terry Jones that he is putting our troops in danger.  It is our president and our elected officials who place our troops in danger by putting them overseas to fight wars that do nothing to enhance the security of our country.  Our soldiers' lives are put in danger by putting them in Iraq, in a war that has questionable legitimacy, and in Afghanistan, where a somewhat more legitimate war has been transformed into an exercise in nation building.

In the latter case, this war would likely be unnecessary had the U.S. not involved itself in a previous war in Iraq, that while in complete conformity with international law also did nothing to enhance U.S. security.  We further created enemies by unwisely stationing troops in Saudi Arabia, the one place on earth where stationing non-Muslim troops is most likely to cause offense.  I am not justifying the reaction of the terrorist, I am simply saying that we need to understand their motivation and pick our battles accordingly.

Having said that, the last thing we want to do is to oppose the free expression of insults to Islam and Mohammed simply because this will place our soldiers in danger.  It is their job to protect our freedom.  It is particularly offensive that they are being sent on missions that do nothing to protect this freedom, and then our freedom is to be sacrificed in order to protect them.

There are some who ask what burning the Koran and depicting Mohammed have to do with freedom.  If you do neither of these are you really not free?  My answer would be that it depends on why you aren't doing it.  If you are concerned that you are likely to jeopardize friendships that you have with Muslims, then it is not.  In a free society no one has a claim on approval or friendship.  If Muslims don't want to be your friend, then they are free to withhold friendship for any reason they want.  If, on the other hand, the reason that you don't want to burn the Koran is because you fear violent retaliation, then you are no longer free.