This Week's EFFYOU goes out to Terry Jones and everyone at the Dove World Outreach Center (UPDATED)

effyou.org:

This handsome man is Dr. Terry Jones in a screencap from a propaganda video available for viewing on YouTube and http://doveworld.org. Dr. Terry Jones is the man who runs the Dove World Outreach Center.  They’re the group of Christians who have called this Saturday, the 9th anniversary of the 911 attacks, “International Burn a Koran Day” (that links to the event’s page on Facebook, btw.)

However, these people aren’t just about burning the holy books of religions they don’t agree with (OK, Islam), they’re about rampant paranoia, calling anything they disagree with a threat to America.  That propaganda video on their website suggests abortions, gay marriage and Islam are “very serious issues” that will “shape America’s future in a negative way” and that Islam is “a political force” with “a vision of world domination” (that has no resemblance to Christianity, we have to assume).

Apparently, they don’t think copyright infringement is a problem, though, since they use music from a Hollywood movie (Braveheart, I think?) to add drama to Jones’ words—like they need drama—AMERICA IS UNDER ATTACK! ISN’T THAT DRAMA ENOUGH?

Ahem… 

Terry Jones is so intolerant of Islam that he wrote a book called Islam is of the Devil and even sells T-shirts and coffee mugs with the phrase “Islam is of the Devil” on them so you can proudly display your own intolerance while hanging out with friends or drinking your morning coffee at the office.

It’s a shame that this idiot and his idiot followers don’t get the whole “Golden Rule” thing going—you know, that “Don’t do unto others that which you wouldn’t have done unto you” thing?  I guess it’s OK for them to take away from Muslims the very thing they’re enjoying by preaching hatred of Muslims—aka, the right to practice your religion of choice freely.

Talk about unAmerican.

For being so intolerant of another religion it has set aside the anniversary of a terrible day in American history to pee all over one of the main principles behind America’s very founding, the Dove World Outreach Center and all of its supporters gets this week’s EFFYOU.

Hell, these guys should just get this week’s EFFYOU, they should get the hell out of America. We’re about freedom here—not religious harassment.

PS, as an atheist, I have a WHOLE mess of problems with these guys, but my biggest problem (explained above) happens to have nothing to do with religion—it’s all about tolerance.  Read a more unbridled take on this on Website666.com.

*UPDATED 20100910: OK, well, it looks like Terry Jones has actually seen the light after having chats with the FBI, another pastor, a local Florida imam and even US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.  So, he’s canceled the Koran-burning.  HOWEVER, he’s still an interminable douche who is really just an attention whore with a gas station mustache.  To take this as far as he has shows much more intolerance than any American should be willing to put up with.  It also shows a level of ignorance and pettiness that seems as deep as the Mariana Trench.

So, Terry Jones and any of his followers who have yet to disassociate themselves from this man still get a big EFFYOU from EFFYOU.org.

It’s not like, aside from the Koran-burning, this was a decent guy, or anything.

From thedailywhat:

Good News of the Day: Pastor Terry Jones calls off controversial “International Burn a Koran Day,” remains a grade-A douche while doing so.

[bbc.]

SWEET!

But wait… the article linked to says:

Terry Jones said he was calling off the event after the group behind a planned Islamic centre near Ground Zero in New York agreed to relocate it.

But the cultural centre’s organisers said they had no plans to move it.

Is he just a loon???  Did he imagine the folks behind the “Ground Zero Mosque” (aka a Muslim community center 2 block from GZ) called him and said they’d cave?

He does believe in God and that burning the Koran was a good idea in the first place, so it’s hard to figure out where he draws the line between fantasy and reality.

Either way, it’s a shame he didn’t see/can’t admit the error of his ways—the idea that burning someone else’s holy book is a kind of harassment and a clear form of intolerance doesn’t seem to be an idea he can grasp.  There’s no “negotiating intolerance.”

Building a mosque right on Ground Zero isn’t an affront to Christianity, it’s just insensitive to some of the 911 families.  Declaring a day “International Burn a Koran Day” is an affront—not just all Muslims, but to all religiously tolerant people.

People are such idiots.

Special midweek 666cast! Episode 23 of the 666cast features my rant against the Dove World Outreach Center—the folks behind “International Burn a Koran Day”. You’ll understand if I sound a little more angry in this special mid-week edition of the 666cast. Please subscribe to the feed.

Special midweek 666cast! Episode 23 of the 666cast features my rant against the Dove World Outreach Center—the folks behind “International Burn a Koran Day”.  You’ll understand if I sound a little more angry in this special mid-week edition of the 666cast.

Please subscribe to the feed.

Awesome parody commercial advertising the big “Burn a Koran Day” this weekend. Reblog it OR BURN IN HELL! ;)itsjustsummer:BURN A QURAN DAY (A Tragical Church Ad From DC Douglas)A “tragical” commercial for “Dr.” Terry Jones and his asinine Dove World Outreach Center (as well as a nipple tweak of Fred Phelps and his WBC family cult.) Pass this on to those who need to laugh at the darkness.Please, oh please go viral!!Thanks for the heads-up, Summer!

Radical Christians need funding for better signs... (should probably read more, too)

Why would you put up a sign like that?

Um, because you’re too stupid to learn Photoshop and buy a decent printer?

Wait—that can’t be right—you’re clearly smart enough to own a Mac since you clearly used the “advanced” video editing software iMovie to cut the slick propaganda video currently occupying your website.

WAIT! I know! Is it because you’re cause is too fringey and can’t raise enough money for you to go to an actual sign maker and pay to have it done right?

Well, in that case, enjoy some free publicity!

(Yes, these are the same fools who think having an “International Burn the Koran Day” is “neither an act of love nor of hate,” read more about them at effyou.org.)

If you want to burn the Koran, get out of my country.

Saw this on CNN.com yesterday (via Google News, of course—I’d never willingly go to CNN.com):

Really? Is that the ONLY reason having a “Burn a Koran” party would be a bad thing?

Read more of this bullshit from the above article:

The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, plans to mark the anniversary of al Qaeda’s September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington by burning copies of the Muslim holy book. The church insists the event is “neither an act of love nor of hate,” but a warning against what it calls the threats posed by Islam.

Seriously, STFU and GTFO of the USA if you think burning the Koran is something you should do.

This is enough to make me want to just give up.

They’re called “THE DOVE WORLD *OUTREACH* CENTER” and they want to burn Korans.

Dude.

Dove = peace

World = everybody

Outreach = reaching out to people

But they want to burn Korans.

This is a total fucking LogicFAIL

MoralsFAIL

BrainFAIL

StupidWIN

OK, I’m gonna type some amazingly obvious things now:

1) Hey, Koran-burners, how would you feel if I had a “Burn the Bible” party? Whatever happened to that whole “Don’t do unto others…” thing?

2) Hey, Koran-burners: remember that whole “freedom of religion” thing? Yeah, you’re kinda going against it.  You’re showing some serious intolerance that, if shown to you, you probably wouldn’t be too keen on (see point 1).

3) Hey, Koran-burners: Intolerance toward religious views is about as unAmerican as you can get. So, if you want to be so intolerant to Islam as to want to burn it’s holy book, why don’t you go find another country to live in?  Seriously. Leave my country now.  You don’t belong here.

Believe what you want, say what you want, but start harassing all Muslims for something a handful of them did and you’re pissing on the principles our country was founded on.  Anyone who burns the Koran (or any religious item) should NOT be punished by law—they should just be excluded from all of society.

And this is coming from an atheist who feels religion of any kind does more harm than good—but even *I* don’t go around burning Bibles and Korans.