Burning the Quran, the holy book of Islam, which is what a publicity seeking Florida Christian church plans to do on September 11th to demonstrate its bigotry, is a cowardly and incredibly stupid thing to do:

KABUL—The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said the planned burning of Qurans on Sept. 11 by a Florida church could put the lives of American troops in danger and damage the war effort.

Gen. David Petraeus said the Taliban would exploit the demonstration for propaganda purposes, drumming up anger toward the U.S. and making it harder for allied troops to carry out their mission of protecting Afghan civilians. […]

Hundreds of Afghans attended a demonstration in Kabul on Monday to protest the plans of Florida pastor Terry Jones, who has said he will burn the Quran on Sept. 11.

It’s easy to for Terry Jones to express his “righteous indignation” against Islamic extremists from the safety of the Florida Peninsula, but to anyone in the armed forces serving in Afghanistan this is just another excuse for outraged Muslims to retaliate against them and for the Taliban to recruit disaffected individuals to their violent, extremist cause.

Obviously, Jones is doing this to make a name for himself since his church has all of fifty (that’s Five-0 folks) members. Just as obviously he has no respect for the millions of Muslims who are peaceful and have nothing to do with the actions of extremists in their ranks.

Imagine if you will if the United States were occupied by an Islamic country’s military (an event so improbable that only the most deluded individuals could possibly take it seriously, but humor me) and an Islamic scholar or Imam announced he planned to burn hundreds of Christian Bibles in retaliation for terrorist actions taken by a few fringe extremist Christians?

What would be the reaction of most Fundamentalist Christians in America? Even if those foreign troops had acted with the greatest respect and forbearance toward American civilians under their control, and had never tortured or killed innocent people by mistake, those American Christians would be filled with anger and a great desire to take revenge against Muslims. No doubt more than a few of the more extreme Christian sects would feel justified in killing those Muslim soldiers who occupied our nation.

Indeed, what would be the reaction of prominent conservative Christians to such an act even if we were not under the military occupation of a foreign power? There likely would be loud outcries at such an action, and a call by some of the more extreme conservative Christian leaders for the US government to take action in response. Pat Robertson anyone?

Now ask yourselves if what Terry Jones is doing makes any sense at all other than as a personal effort at pumping up his own ego at the risk of the lives of both US soldiers and the Afghan people?

As General Petreaus noted in his remarks:

“It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community.”

Not that I expect our man Terry Jones to be listening to the voices of reason and tolerance. He’s enjoying his extended fifteen minutes of fame to the maximum extent that he can. I fully expect him to carry out his stupid little book burning stunt. But it would be nice if more prominent members of the Christian Right and the Republican party called him out on it instead of riding the wave of rabid, foaming at the mouth Islamo-phobia which seems to have taken possession of so many Americans this election season.

Update [2010-9-6 19:30:37 by Steven D]: Gainesville Florida Clergy speak out against Terry Jones’ plan to burn the Quran (h/t to Joaey in the comments):