Koran Burning?

Planned Koran Burning Draws International Scorn - NYTimes.com: "The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said on Wednesday that burning Korans would be a “repugnant” sign of disrespect, and the Vatican said it would be an “outrageous and grave gesture.” Brig. Gen. Hans-Werner Fritz, the commander of German troops in Afghanistan, said the burning would 'provide a trigger for violence towards all ISAF troops, including the Germans in northern Afghanistan.”"

Terry Jones, the pastor of a small congregation in Florida, is causing trouble with his disrespectful threat of burning the Koran in public. In my humble opinion this is an equivalent act of the Muhammad caricatures or the dog with a prophet head by Lars Vilks. One of the painters of the caricatures, Kurt Westergaard, recently got a German journalist prize for, as Angela Merkel said, his courage under death threats to protect the freedom of speech. Apparently not pastor Jones' freedom of speech.

Personally, as I have said before, I don't think it was a good idea to do any of these disrespectful gestures even if the freedom of speech says it is doable. The pastor, however, puts President Obama on the spot since he was for the Ground Zero mosque which is considered disrespectful to Americans by some 70% of the American public. His enemies are going to say he is soft on Muslims.