Whether he is a fanatic, as Arab League chief Amr Moussa has observed, or a plain raving lunatic, Terry Jones, pastor of a small church in Gainesville, Florida, in the US, will be inaugurating the witches’ season internationally if he goes ahead with his despicable plan to burn copies of the holy Quran on Saturday to mark the ninth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on America. That date marked the beginning of a saga of horror around the world whose protagonists are votaries of an extreme rendering of Islam in quest of political power in Muslim lands, and to extract revenge for imagined wrongs done to Muslims. It is important to note that normal, ordinary, adherents of Islam do not subscribe to the creed of the misogynists who seek to wrap the world in a web of terror. This has been seen most conspicuously in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq where Al Qaeda and its affiliates are viewed as sources of misery, not as standard-bearers of Islam, although America is hardly an object of admiration in these societies. A succession of polls attest to this. However, if Mr Jones is not stopped in his tracks, it is not unlikely that the average Muslim person will be inflamed and rush to the defence of his faith, in the process strengthening the hands of the small minority of extremists. The wave of reaction we saw in Europe and elsewhere following the unfortunate episode of a cartoon depicting the Prophet should make this amply clear.
If pastor Jones and his cohorts are permitted to succeed, there is bound to be anger not only among the Muslims of the world. The ideological and political battle against terrorism will be irrevocably lost. Militarily, the tenuous progress in the so-called war against terrorism is bound to be rendered even more doubtful. There have already been protests in Afghanistan and Indonesia against the vile scheme of the Florida churchman. The atmosphere is likely to be vitiated elsewhere as well. General David Petraeus, the US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, has had the good sense to warn that the torching of the Muslim holy book will endanger US troops in Afghanistan. Mr Jones has said he will take seriously the concerns of Gen. Petraeus, but someone like him cannot be trusted to do the right thing of his own accord.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has rightly noted that the burning of the Quran will be a “disrespectful, disgraceful act”. And she is not alone in America to condemn the idea. The US leadership should, however, be quite clear that the tempo of international relations in the world will be rocked if the pastor is not restrained. Even non-Muslim countries might find it difficult to carry on business with the US in the old way if the hated idea comes to pass. In India, we have cohered with Muslims amongst us for more than a thousand years, and have at no point proclaimed the thesis of a “clash of civilisations”. Muslims and followers of other faiths stand as co-equals in every domain, although there are occasional social strains. Indians speak from the standpoint of this understanding of social and philosophical existence and order when they urge the West to mitigate the fury unleashed by the super-individualism that has been spawned in everyday practice in some corners of the West since the Enlightenment and the rise of capitalism. It is being reported that unless Mr Jones commits his infamy, he cannot be proceeded against under the liberal US law. This is nonsense. For “un-American” activities, the liberties of thousands of Americans wee curtailed in the McCarthy period. The American authorities must not leave anything to chance in the case of the evil pastor.