How do extremists manage to brandjack religions and countries? Let us take Pastor Terry Jones. While it is possible to criticise the MSM for reporting plans by the obscure leader of a few dozen people to burn the Koran, politicians have now played into his hands. President Obama made a completely absurd statement talking about how "we" don't desecrate other people's holy texts because it is not what "we" stand for. Why is he associating a silly publicity stunt by one man with the policy of the United States - with what the United States 'stands for'? His deft handling of his campaign has not been carried forward into office. He seems unready for prime time.
How did one insignificant pastor become the voice of America, and why is the President presenting him as such by talking about his action as one that "we" don't do? Why would the president participate in such brandjacking.
Meanwhile there are people objecting to an Islamic cultural center being built a couple of blocks from Ground Zero because a mosque would be seen as a 'victory' by al Qaeda. Except that there doesn't seem to be any connection at all between the Islamic cultural center and al Qaeda. How did Islam allow itself to be brandjacked by al Qaeda?
In part some of these misunderstandings arise because Islam is not a centralised religion in the way that some Christian churches - Catholicism, for example - are. There is no central leadership of Islam to declare where Islam stands corporately in relation to al Qaeda. While it is easy for any journalist to find a self appointed imam to condemn bin Laden, it is equally easy to find another to praise him.
It is not easy to see how 'Islam' can distance itself from al Qaeda, but the US government could easily - and much more effectively - distance itself from Pastor Terry Jones. They could just shrug and say "he's one guy and it's just a book".
Completely agree with this. There will always be `free radicals' like Terry Jones in every society. Surely plain commonsense, leave alone PR advice, dictates that the correct course of action is to ignore or downplay any such anti-social action. Prez Obama needs a new PR advisor!
Posted by: Sabiha | 09/11/2010 at 02:12 AM
absolutely agree as well!!!
Posted by: Britt | 09/14/2010 at 12:05 PM