It remains unclear whether Terry Jones will go through with burning copies of the Koran on Saturday, as the nutty Florida pastor says in one breath his stunt has been canceled and then in another impose a deadline for New York Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf to indicate he will move a proposed mosque near Ground Zero or Jones' Islamic holy book burning goes on.
Rauf should just borrow a page from the Ronald Reagan playbook.
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“There will be no negotiating with terrorists,” Reagan famously said in a presidential debate with Jimmy Carter.
Why not say the same to Jones?
After all, the supposed Man o' God is inciting terrorists around the world against the U.S.
Jones could, of course, point out that the Gipper did negotiate with Iranian terrorists to hold American hostages until after the election that would sweep him into office, and then again as part of the whole Iran-Contra mess.
But Rauf could just shoot back that Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney also tossed out the “We don't negotiate with terrorists” line.
Speaking of lines, the line of folks you spot at the corner of Orange Avenue and Brookhurst Street in Anaheim around 3 p.m. today will be protesting the proposed Koran burning.
Jones could, of course, point out that his stunt is now off (if it is).
But the protesters, led by Mt. San Jacinto College student organizer Abla Sebak, can just shoot back that Jones' isn't the only announced Koran burning this weekend.
Springfield, Tenn., Rev. Bob Old has vowed to burn three copies of the
Koran in his backyard and videotape it for YouTube, Cheyenne, Wyo., Tyranny
Response Team founder Duncan Philp plans to burn a copy of the Koran on the steps of the
State Capitol, and that Rev. Fred “God Hates Fags” Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., is also burning the Islamic holy book.
Ah well, at least Phelps won't be crashing any U.S. soldier funerals Saturday.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.