OK, I have to say the guy from Gainesville, Fla., who may or may not burn Qurans, is a nut.
As you're reading this, it's probably Saturday. As of Friday when I was writing this, the plan to burn a pile of Islam's holiest books had been put on hold, but not cancelled.
The Rev. Terry Jones runs the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville. He originally planned an "International Burn A Koran Day" from 6 to 9 p.m. today - the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
It's the classic case of exercising a right that you probably shouldn't. I mean, you can burn flags, Bibles and Qurans in this country. It's protected freedom of expression.
But should you?
I'm going with no.
Burning the Quran is extremely offensive to muslims. (Like building a mosque near Ground Zero is offensive to the relatives of 9/11 victims, maybe?)
So, seriously, the guy should just cool it with the Quran burning.
It's not as if he hasn't had enough urging. He's had pleas to cease and desist from President Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Former President Bill Clinton, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Vatican, Franklin Graham (Billy's kid), Florida Governor Charlie Christ, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and just about anyone else with a brain. (Yes, I am conceding that Palin and Beck have brains.)
In Pakistan, 200 lawyers and civil society members marched and burned a U.S. flag.
In Mahmud Raqi, Afghanistan, some 500 to 700 people protested the Quran burning - chanting death to America and burning American flags.
There have been dozens of similar protests throughout the Muslim world. Religious groups are outraged, agitated and angry.
Interpol has sent out a warning to travelers, as has the U.S. State Department. Travelers are being warned worldwide to be on the lookout for angry, violent protests.
The manic minister has been burned in effigy overseas.
It truly has become a worldwide story - a flashpoint.
It is precisely the kind of stuff the Taliban and al-Qaida uses to motivate its followers. A Quran bonfire could jeopardize our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and serve as a powerful recruiting tool for Islamic radicals worldwide.
And the Obama administration was faced with a vexing conundrum.
The crazed clergyman says that maybe if he got a call from the White House, he "might" reconsider. He said, he'd at least "listen." But after all, burning Qurans is, "a message that we have been called to bring forth. And because of that, we do not feel like we can back down."
He also said, "How much do we back down? How many times do we back down? Instead of us backing down, maybe it's time to stand up. Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior."
Sounds pretty stubborn, doesn't he?
Now, what in the world do you do if you're President Obama? It's the ultimate damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
If he calls, seems to me there are there are two likely outcomes - and they're both bad.
First, whether the White House dissuades the raving reverend from burning Qurans or not, you've set a very dangerous precedent. Anytime a nutcase decides to do something that gets national attention, he'll demand a call from the president.
Second, what if he calls the guy and the guy burns the Qurans anyway? Then what? How does that make the White House look around the world?
Yikes.
I'm glad I don't have to make decisions like those.
As it turns out, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave the peevish parson a call. Apparently, that wasn't enough to change his mind.
But then an Imam from Florida acted as an emissary between the raucous rector and the New York Imam who's proposing to build building a mosque near Ground Zero.
So the pompous preacher calls a press conference and says that there is a deal. He has cancelled his Quran-burning event if the New York Imam won't build the mosque near Ground Zero.
Problem is, the New York Imam almost immediately comes out and says there is no deal, he won't barter and he's still building his mosque near Ground Zero.
And the Florida Imam says he only said he could set up a meeting with the New York mosque planners and that there was never any kind of deal.
So the volatile vicar comes out and says the Quran inferno is on hold - not cancelled, mind you - until he can sort all this out.
'We are just really shocked,' he said of the Florida Imam. 'He clearly, clearly lied to us.'
So I guess - at this juncture - there may or may not be Qurans burning in Gainesville this evening.You know what bugs me most about this perverse pastor?
He's nobody.
His church, which is independent of any denomination, leans a little bit on the Pentecostal tradition of feeling as if it is engaged in some sort of spiritual warfare against satanic forces.
He and his church believes Islam is the devil.
The church itself looks like a small, steel-strand pole building on 20 acres north of Gainesville. Local newspapers report he and his wife live on the property, where they also store furniture they sell on eBay.
Church attendance ranges from 30 to 50.
I understand it's too late to put this toothpaste back in the tube, but it could be instructional going forward.
Seems to me a good way for local and national news outlets to have handled this thing from the outset would have been to simply ignore the erratic ecclesiastic and his ridiculous publicity stunt.
If a Quran burns in the middle of Florida and nobody's there to see it, does it still enrage people around the world?
