POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

And the Winner Is . . . Imam Muhammad Musri [UPDATED x2]

Moderate Muslim for America:

The Florida Imam brokering a deal with Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who planned to hold a Koran-burning protest in Gainesville, Fla., denounced the "ground zero" mosque project Thursday, saying its location just two blocks from ground zero is a "clear provocation."

Imam Muhammad Musri told reporters: "I like many Americans, Muslims and non, feel that the placement of a mosque near the Ground Zero location is unnecessary. And it has become a clear provocation to many people to be violent against mosques across the nation."

Congratulations, Imam Musri, for being the only actor to come out of this putrescence unstained.

UPDATE: FBI agents met with Pastor Terry Jones? WTF?

UPDATE x2: Richard Fernandez at Pajamas:

The huge publicity given to Jones implies yet another thing. Extremism unfortunately works. If Jones has indeed gotten the GZM to move then he will have succeeded where reasoned argument did not. And he did it by imitation. Inevitably the blackmail tactics of Islamic extremism would generate copycats of which Terry Jones may only be a foretaste. Rewarding bad behavior has always brought the bugs out of the woodwork. Here is Jones playing back their own script. And nobody likes it. But either we all play by the same rules or no one does. Either that or the rulebook — not the Koran– gets effectively burned. A world in which only selected, politically correct groups are exempt from the requirement of civility cannot long survive. Unless equality before the law replaces political correctness the danger is threats will replace discourse. Smith and Wesson become more weighty than Moses and the Prophets when coercion is rewarded, as it has been too often for too long, in the past.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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