There's an hilarious line in the movie Napoleon Dynamite that I thought would work as a seamless introduction to my rant for this week.
At one point in the movie, the high school principal is talking to Pedro, a new student from Mexico, one of Napoleon's few friends.
Pedro had run into a little bit of trouble after creating a pinata made to resemble one of the school's most popular girls - not a very nice girl either, mind you - and, although this was quite a hit amongst all of the geeks and misfits at the school, it didn't impress the principal.
The line goes, "Look, Pedro, I don't know how they do things down in Juarez, but here in Idaho we have a little something called pride. Understand? Smashing in the face of a pinata that resembles Summer Wheatley is a disgrace to you, me, and the entire Gem State."
Without quoting any more of the movie (although I'd really like to), I'll now turn the floor over to Reverend Terry Jones. If you're not familiar with Mr. Jones - he's crazy. Well, more specifically he's that uber-Christian fundamentalist who (somehow) made headlines all over the world in the days and weeks leading up to Sept. 11 of this year for his plan to burn several copies of the Koran, presumably to commemorate or recognize the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center - or something like that.
And, although I very much disagree with Mr. Jones' dimwitted plot to deface the Islamic holy book, he is not the person that I am most angered by in this whole mess. I could really care less what one man in Florida, who leads a tiny (50 member) congregation, wants to do in his spare time.
No one should have cared about what he had to say.
This whole debacle, which was talked about around water coolers all over the Western world - perpetuated in part by the media's unnecessary coverage of it - in my mind, really sheds light on deeper, more troubling issues within our dominant society; most notably, an unwarranted fear of Islam.
After a certain point, the issue became less about this insane reverend who wanted to burn a holy text - one that means so much to so many people all around the world - and more about what the "even crazier" Muslims were going to do in retaliation.
Even President Obama spoke out, under pressure from army officials, and condemned Jones' actions on the grounds that it would put American troops fighting overseas in danger.
There was never any discussion, as far as I could tell, about the fact that, if Jones had gone through with his plan, that he would have been performing a downright disrespectful and childish act against a perfectly peaceful religion - as peaceful as Christianity at any rate (if that counts for much). Maybe it was implied? Who knows?
But it seemed that no matter who you talked to, or what news station you happened to be watching, the general feeling was that Jones' actions would immediately set off a second 9/11; a slippery slope, to say the least.
Did anybody really think that some crazy guy in Florida, burning 150 copies of the Koran was going to add fuel to the anti-American fire burning in the hearts of a select group - a small minority, mind you - of violent Muslims? Aren't the few violent sects who are currently engaged in combat with American troops already fairly desperate and ruthless in their approach to gaining ground? Do you really think the actions of some guy in little old Gainsborough, Florida are going to strengthen or weaken the resolve of these fighters?
No.
Quite simply, the only reason this story ever took off in the first place is because people really like having a reason to talk about scary Muslims.
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 were really horrible and despicable acts of violence on America. But that's exactly what they were: terrorist attacks.
Terrorists don't ever represent a majority - they are, more often than not, crazy people. The people who carried out those acts probably weren't all that much different in their devotion to their religion than silly old Mr. Jones.
Is Islam the threat? Or are crazy people the threat? Because America certainly has their fair share of those. And, aside from a few serious, but isolated acts of violence, I don't see the Afghan (or Iraqi) army sending fighter jets overseas or dropping ground troops onto American soil.
I'm not typically one to harp on the media, - I am kind of a member of it, after all - but in this particular situation, whosever desk this assignment initially came across - whether it was the local press in Gainsborough, or CNN, or CBC - should have just tossed it out.
After all, there would be no hatred to incite if this particular pastor had been ignored. Instead, he was heard loud and clear across the world.
It's like that old clich茅, "if a tree falls in the forest and nobody's around, does it make a sound?"
The whole of the Western world was suddenly re-invited into a conversation about how potentially dangerous Muslims are.
And that brings me back to the quote that I started this rant with. Connect the dots.
I'll spare you my rant on that whole ground zero Islamic mosque/cultural centre debate. It would probably be fairly similar.
