Our Country Shouldn't Be Identified With Haters And Bigots... But It Is

I love traveling to Indonesia and I have some wonderful friends there. I've been helping my friend Anwar in Bali save to send his elderly parents to Mecca where they can complete their religious obligations. (I also got Sponge Bob to autograph a photo for Anwar's daughter a couple years ago.) I was mortified when I heard on CNN this morning that Indonesians had heard about the vicious, hateful and bigoted faux Christians who are burning Korans in Florida. There are more than a billion Muslims in the world and I was sure the moderate and very pro-Americans Indonesians weren't the only ones upset and hurt.

And sure enough, ABC News reported late in the day that General Petraeus says the Koran burning could endanger our troops and their mission.

A Florida pastor's plan to burn Qurans at his church on Sept. 11 ignited a protest today by hundreds of Afghans, who burned American flags and shouted "Death to America," and the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the preacher could be increasing the threat to his troops.

The crowd in downtown Kabul reached nearly 500 today, with Afghan protesters chanting "Long live Islam " and "Long live the Quran," and burning an effigy of Terry Jones, senior pastor from the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida who is planning the event.

The protesters were well aware of the pastor's inflammatory comments, such as the "Islam is an evil religion," since they have been spread wide on the Internet. Jones has also authored a book, "Islam Is of the Devil."

The protesters' anger wasn't limited to Jones, however. Chants of "Death to America" echoed through the crowd, and U.S. flags were set ablaze alongside the effigy of Jones.

"America cannot eliminate Muslims from the world," one Afghan man told ABC News.
The angry crowd pelted a passing U.S. military convoy with rocks.

Gen. David Petraeus said he is outraged by the pastor's decision to burn the Quran, which he said could "endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort here."

Former Vice Chief of Staff of the Army Gen. Jack Keane, an adviser to Petraeus, called it "outrageous" and "insulting to Muslims."
 
"It's also insulting to our soldiers in terms of what they stand for and what their commitment is to this country and to the Muslims in this country," Keane told ABC News.

But late today, Jones vowed he would go ahead with the Quran burning, even knowing the concerns of Petraeus and Keane for the safety of U.S. troops.

"What we are doing is long overdue. We are revealing the violence of Islam that is much, much deeper than we'd like to admit," Jones said in an interview with ABC News.

At first I didn't know if the video up top was real or a spoof. This one, however, is real-- and right at the site of the World Trade Center, ironically in a Mormon-owned and operated Marriott Hotel: