Pastor Terry Jones is one of the many ugly faces that have emerged in the aftermath of 9/11. The Florida pastor was arrested on Wednesday whilst in the possession of 3,000 copies of the Holy Quran dipped in kerosene, en route to a park where he intended to initiate a massive Quran burning ceremony. Needless to say, his timely arrest has prevented matters from spiralling wildly out of control. Terry Jones is what can be described as a provocateur. A man not just satisfied with hate mongering, he feels the misguided need to provoke people to the extent that they lose all sensibility and rationality. This is not the first time Jones has undertaken such a sordid task; in 2010, he planned a Quran burning event on the anniversary of 9/11 but called it off and then, in March 2011, his congregation did burn the holy book. He also had a hand in promoting the anti-Islam movie that led to violent protests the world over in 2012 and prompted the Pakistani government to ban the popular video sharing website YouTube.
The moronic antics of people like Terry Jones have the power to cause a tremendous amount of damage and bloodshed because this is what they want. They look to incite reactions by provoking emotionalism and, for Muslims, nothing makes them angry like anti-Islam comments and actions. The latest Quran burning saga planned by Jones was meant to, no doubt, incite more anger and violence in the Muslim world. Terry Jones is the kind of man who propagates that 9/11 occurred because the teachings of Islam make its followers violent, barbaric human beings. Since 9/11, he has been trying to gain his 15 minutes of fame by selling the myth that all the wars and bloodshed we are seeing in the world today are, somehow, because of Islam, a sordid distortion of the essential message of peace enshrined in Islam’s teachings. It must be commended that his latest act of defacing the holy book has been nipped in the bud with his arrest. However, people like him will always be around to instigate and propel hate. It is best for us to ignore them and hope that denying them the oxygen of publicity will make them irrelevant and just fade away. *