Attorney General Eric Holder has come down hard against this action, considering how anti-mosque protests have already emboldened the Taliban and helped their recruiting efforts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder is calling the planned burning of the Quran at a Florida church idiotic and dangerous. The Justice Department confirms that Holder made the remarks in a meeting with religious leaders to discuss recent attacks on Muslims and mosques around the United States.
The first video is good, but it's actually during the second portion of the interview that Andersen really nails this apparent scam artist and American Talibani. Full Transcript.
COOPER: Sir, on -- on your Web site -- on television, you say one thing. On your Web site and in your preachings, you say something else.
You say there should be no Muslims allowed to immigrate to the United States and you say there no new mosques should be allowed to be built in the United States.
Do you deny saying that on your Web site and in your preaching?
JONES: No, I do not deny that.
COOPER: OK.
JONES: That is my -- that is -- that is my opinion, but my opinion does not supersede the Constitution.
My opinion, we would be better off if we paid more attention. We would be better off if we really checked the Muslims that immigrated here. We see that problem very clearly in Europe. That is my opinion. That is not the Constitution.
So, I stand to the Constitution, that they have freedom of worship and freedom to build mosques.
He doesn't just oppose building Park51 near the Ground Zero site, he opposes building Any mosque in the U.S., or even allowing any Muslim to enter the U.S. So is he a bigot?
COOPER: Do you consider yourself a bigot?
JONES: No, not at all. And we do not consider our message a message of hate.
It is -- it is a clear message of warning. We have tried to make it very, very clear that, according to the United States Constitution, Muslims are more than welcome in America. They are welcome to worship. They are welcome to build mosques.
We have made that very, very clear. I understand they're not in agreement. And they're mad and angry. They're -- they're -- they're insulted because we are burning the Koran, but they should, indeed, be with us on the fact that radical Islam is bad. It is evil. We do not want it in this country.
See, he's not a bigot - he's just against radical Islam - and every mosque in the country, and every Muslim in the country. But he's not "hateful". Nooooo.
Cooper: But I asked about the bigotry, because the definition of a bigot that I just got off Dictionary.com is a person who is intolerant of any ideas other than his or her own, especially on religion, politics or race.
You do appear to be remarkably intolerant on any ideas other than your own regarding religion.
JONES: We are -- as the Bible teaches, as Jesus teaches, we are intolerant, yes.
COOPER: So, if bigot -- so if being a bigot...
JONES: And the Koran does not...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: So, if being a bigot is being intolerant of anyone else's ideas on religion other than your own, you would -- you would say, yes, you're a bigot?
JONES: We believe there is only one way, and that is Jesus Christ. People have freedom to worship as they please. That is what I said.
People have the "Right" to worship as they please, they should just worship how I say they should. Yea, that would be the definition of Intolerant Bigotry right there.
JONES: Jesus Christ is the only way.
COOPER: You're stating a fact there. But that's not your desire. You don't want Muslims to have freedom to worship in this country. You don't want Muslims to be able to build new mosques here. You don't want more Muslims coming to the United States. Correct?
JONES: That is not correct. And it depends on who you are asking.
COOPER: On your Web site, you say: "Stop all Islamic immigration. You're only coming to this land to take over and try to enforce the Islamic laws upon us." And you say, "Stop building all mosques until churches can be built in Saudi Arabia."
So, you don't want Muslims coming here and you don't want new mosques being built. You're -- I know you're not saying that's the law. Under the Constitution, they can. But you're saying, you don't like that.
JONES: It is my opinion, yes. As I said -- as I said, as a Christian, I wish that all Muslims would get saved. I wish that they would all convert to Christianity, because Christianity is the one and only true religion.
The Koran, in our opinion, is an evil book.
Yeah, that's not bigoted at all. He's only against Radical Islam except that he's thinks the book read and worshiped by all the non-radical Muslim's is "Evil".
JONES: Do you want to know what the Bible says about the Koran?
COOPER: ... to answer the question, I understand. But -- but I'm just asking the question, have you read the Koran?
JONES: I said no. I have read parts of the Koran.
If you add to this book, let him be accursed -- that's what the Bible says about the Koran.
My wife tells me this is quote from St. John the Apostle in Revelations - but it's out of context. John was talking about his own writing - he was talking about Revelations itself which was written around 87 C.E., not the entire Bible which wasn't compiled as a comprehensive book until Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome around 331 C.E., nearly 150 years later.
The Qur'an wasn't even written until 632 C.E., another 300 years later - so how exactly did St. John comment on it 5 centuries previously?
You know who else believes that "everything would be fine if everyone would just convert to his religion"? Osama Bin Laden, that's who.
Contrast this Dangerous Nutball with the actual Imam for Cordoba House/Park 51 who has written an Op/Ed in the NYTimes. Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf is a Sufi, part of an Islamic sect which opposes the extremism of the Sunnis in Al Qaeda or the Shia in Hezbollah, and has operated a Mosque just ten blocks from Ground Zero for the last 28 years.
Our name, Cordoba, was inspired by the city in Spain where Muslims, Christians and Jews co-existed in the Middle Ages during a period of great cultural enrichment created by Muslims. Our initiative is intended to cultivate understanding among all religions and cultures.
I am very sensitive to the feelings of the families of victims of 9/11, as are my fellow leaders of many faiths. We will accordingly seek the support of those families, and the support of our vibrant neighborhood, as we consider the ultimate plans for the community center. Our objective has always been to make this a center for unification and healing.
President Obama and Mayor Michael Bloomberg both spoke out in support of our project. As I traveled overseas, I saw firsthand how their words and actions made a tremendous impact on the Muslim street and on Muslim leaders. It was striking: a Christian president and a Jewish mayor of New York supporting the rights of Muslims. Their statements sent a powerful message about what America stands for, and will be remembered as a milestone in improving American-Muslim relations.
Quite a few people, like David Gergen and even Newt Gingrich have argued that if they want to truly generate "Inter-Faith" with Park 51/Cordoba they should include an Inter-Faith area of Worship. I myself had argued that this is the only compromise they should seriously consider. Well, THEY ALREADY DO.
At Cordoba House, we envision shared space for community activities, like a swimming pool, classrooms and a play space for children. There will be separate prayer spaces for Muslims, Christians, Jews and men and women of other faiths. The center will also include a multifaith memorial dedicated to victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.
So why should this be moved? It already is a inter-faith and multi-faith worship center - not a "Victory Mosque". It contains a Memorial to 9/11 open to people of all faiths. So the argument is that this memorial is TOO CLOSE to the actual 9/11, or that the fact that in includes Muslims as well as everyone else should be a reason that is "too insensitive" to the victims of 9/11 when many of those victims were Muslim too?
Talk about the opposite of Intolerance and bigotry.
Vyan
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