What the hell is wrong with people?

This Saturday, September 11 marks nine years since the attack on the World Trade Center.  And, according to one Florida pastor, what's the best way to honour it?  Why, by burning the Koran, for the International Burn a Koran Day, of course.

Pardon me, but what the fuck is wrong with him?

This angers me on so many levels, I'm not really sure where to start.  I guess the easiest place to start would be with the complete and utter ignorance "Doctor" Terry Jones is showing by thinking this is a good idea.  He was inspired to do this as a protest for the proposal to build a mosque near Ground Zero.  Does he really think that by attacking the Koran that Muslims will step back and say, "Clearly he is right.  If he is willing to burn the Koran he must mean business.  We will stop what we are doing."?  Fucking wanker.

Also at play is the blatant hypocrisy.  Here's a man who will likely profess freedom of religion to spew his misguided hatred, but obviously won't extend that freedom to other religions that might, say, want to build a mosque in New York.  The dumbass has also taken to carrying a gun with him at all times.  Right to bear arms?  Absolutely.  Freedom of religion?  Most definitely - provided you're a right-wing, fundamentalist, whackjob Christian, of course. 

And -AND - does Terry Jones not realized that, by resorting to such fundamentalist ridiculousness and blatant hatred towards Muslims, he is acting in the same way as the fundamentalist Muslims who express hatred towards the west?  Pot, meet kettle.

U.S. General David Petraeus has condemned the burning (hurrah!), out of fear that it will endanger the lives of American soldiers as well as Americans worldwide and would put the completion of the mission in Afghanistan in jeopardy (oh).  After all, it's only the lives of Americans we care about here.  Offending a major world religion?  Meh.  Offending the people in a country we're supposed to be "helping"?  Pfft.

It's been nine years since 9/11 and to those of us following reputable media outlets (i.e. not Fox News) we have been able to see that ideological conflicts are not resolved by telling the other side they are completely wrong (or with illegal wars, but that's another issue).  So, maybe instead of being completely intolerant, we try something crazy, like acceptance of differences?  Maybe instead of further polarizing those we perceive as our enemy, we try to reach common ground?  Maybe instead of hating anything and everything that isn't red-white-and-blue (emphasis on white), we try not hating and see where that gets us? 

(Yes, I understand that I am using "we" to lump together Americans and Canadians, but you can't deny that Canada is heavily influenced by what happens down south.  Ignorant bastards that they are sometimes.)