Pastor Terry Jones, head of the 50-member Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, cancelled his plans to burn the Quran, the holy book of Islam, on the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Jones had threatened to burn more than 200 copies of the Quran, an extremely offensive and provocative act.
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Jones also echoed the anti-Muslim rhetoric against the Park51 community center in New York City, falsely referred to as the “Ground Zero Mosque.” But unlike the bigoted attacks against the Islamic community center that are shrouded in concerns for the victims of 9/11, Jones does not hide his bigotry.
The planned Quran burning sparked demonstrations around the Muslim world. In Karachi, in Southern Pakistan, thousands of protesters held rallies condemning the planned Quran burning, demanding the withdrawal of all occupation forces from Afghanistan and an immediate stop to U.S. drone bombing attacks on Pakistan. There were also large demonstrations in Afghanistan that were met by strong repression, leaving several Afghans dead.
Jones’ theatrics received significant media coverage on all TV and radio networks, as well as print media. Fearing the potential backlash against U.S. troops in the Islamic world, top U.S. officials weighed in on the issue.
General David Petraeus, military commander of the U.S. forces in Afghanistan, spoke out against the planned Quran burning, expressing concern that it would inflame public opinion in Afghanistan. Colonel Erik Gunhus, a military spokesperson, stated that General Petraeus had spoken to the so-called president of occupied Afghanistan, Hamid Karazi, and that both had agreed that if this act took place, it would undermine U.S. efforts in the country and possibly cause the loss of U.S. and NATO coalition troops.
Secretary of state Hillary Clinton called Jones’ plan “outrageous” and not representative of American values. President Obama criticized Jones’ plan, calling it “disrespectful to religious freedoms” and put at risk men and women in uniform.
Anti-Muslim bigotry has been hyped up in the media over the past few weeks over the issue of the Park51 Islamic community center. In fact, the same bigotry has been constantly promoted by the government and the media since 9/11and long before that.
However, in the case of the proposed Quran burning, Jones was isolated by the media as a racist southerner who had no true understanding of American values. The difference is that Jones’ anti-Muslim bigotry went too far to serve a useful purpose to the U.S. ruling class, as it would likely have resulted in an upsurge in Afghan resistance against occupation forces. U.S. interests in the Muslim world would have been undermined if the burning had taken place.
Over the last decade, the ruling class in the U.S. has used anti-Muslim bigotry as a way of building public support for its imperialist occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. Anti-Muslim bigotry has also been a tool for justifying ongoing Israeli crimes against Palestinians. In addition to these specific uses, the ruling class takes advantage of any opportunity to create a false enemy for the U.S. working class. Fear mongering against Muslims and Arabs serves the purpose of creating a false unity between less class-conscious sectors of the working class and their own exploiters against the “other.”
Progressive people stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters against racism and the struggle to end U.S. intervention in the Middle East and the Muslim world.
