The situation involving the proposed Koran bonfire in Florida on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks has become an international story in a very short amount of time. It has also become a story that has caught my particular interest on a few different levels, and has pointed out the continued hypocrisy of many on the political left in this country. The way this story is being covered and discussed is to me very revealing of the shifting sense of morality and respect for fundamental rights by the left, as well as the ability of the national media to create mountains out of molehills…especially when it suits their particular agendas.

The decision by Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove Outreach church in Gainesville, Florida to burn Korans on the anniversary of 9/11 has caused quite the firestorm, and pointed out the amazing abilities of liberals to pick and choose when the rights protected by the Constitution should be respected. Personally, I don’t care whether or not Pastor Jones burns Korans at his church, or anything else that he and his congregation do, mainly because it does not affect me. I think the move is one that is inflammatory in nature, and will likely bring some backlash on the pastor and his flock, but they had to understand that when they decided to turn the alleged words of Allah into an ash heap. What has been so interesting to me is how silent the vast left wing 1^st Amendment defenders have fallen in regards to this situation. How is this planned protest against Islam, if that is indeed what it is, any different from the protected symbolic speech of burning an American flag? We hear the ACLU, Alan Dershowitz, and every other left wing legal hack out there waxing eloquent about how burning a flag or desecrating a crucifix, while highly offensive to many Americans, is nonetheless speech that demands all the protections that the 1^st Amendment can cover the action with. So how is this any different? It is a political statement against the spread of a virulent ideology masked in the guise of religion, just as much to be protected as any similar demonstrations launched by America’s leftists…yet the left has nothing to say in defense of Terry Jones. I guess the 1^st Amendment is only applicable to demonstrations that denigrate the faith, morality, and patriotism of the majority of Americans. To paraphrase Orwell, all constitutionally protected symbolic speeches are equal but some are more equal than others.

Another fascinating aspect of this whole saga has been the lack of people decrying the insistence of government officials, both civilian and military, on telling Pastor Jones that he should stand down on this protest. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that this may cause diplomatic trouble in the Middle East; General David Petraeus has warned that this Koran burning will put our soldiers in further jeopardy in Afghanistan, and thus should be stopped; and President Obama has weighed in calling the whole thing a “stunt” and advising the pastor not to do it as it may have a negative impact on certain national security concerns. Voices from the highest reaches of the federal government and US Armed Forces are calling for a minister to not hold a perfectly legal demonstration, and are using the specter of complicity in the killing of soldiers in Afghanistan to assert pressure on him to conform to their wishes. Now, where are the voices that just last week were screaming about the absolute right of Imam Faisal Abdul Rouf and friends to build their Cordoba complex near the Ground Zero site? Why are their voices not raised in this instance when it is clear that actual government pressure is being brought to bear on a religious figure to sublimate his speech and religious rights to the wishes of governmental authorities? Those usual voices from the left have gotten so quiet that you can hear a rat pissing on cotton on this issue! Moreover, when you do hear one of them speak up they are making the exact argument that many conservatives are making in relation to the Cordoba project, namely that even though the right to do this is not in question it is simply perceived as terribly poor judgment and an unnecessary provocation. But in the close minded world that the allegedly open minded liberals inhabit, these two situations are apples and oranges…when in fact they are red delicious to golden delicious arguments. But the ingrained hypocrisy inherent in liberalism will not allow them to understand or acknowledge their inconsistencies on the issues involved.

Finally, I am amazed at how this planned protest became an international story in the first place. Until just a couple of days ago, the only people who had probably heard of Pastor Terry Jones and his congregation were the people in the Gainesville community where his church is based. I don’t know how long this guy has been a pastor, what he preaches and teaches, what his church mission is, or anything of the sort. But thanks to the national media, I know that he plans a Koran-fired tailgate on what looks to be a beautiful Saturday for football all around the country. Before hearing about this on Fox News, my biggest concern about Saturday was if Notre Dame could get off to a 2-0 start by whipping Michigan when they visit South Bend, or how the Alabama-Penn State game was going to turn out. Now I am wondering what the response to this will be in Gainesville to this bonfire and how many riots will take place overseas as a result (allegedly) of this action undertaken by one small congregation in the heart of Gator Country.

But what is doubly fascinating about this is how the media has fanned the flames of a little demonstration in Florida to make it seem as if every Christian congregation in America is somehow involved. You see, this was tailor made for a legacy media that has been pushing the line that America is “islamophobic” since the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. Back then the legacy media made dire warnings and wrote dark stories of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in America and cautioned against a rise in religiously based hate crimes. The only thing is, the hate crime wave never materialized; in fact the percentage of hate crimes against Muslims ( around 7%) is muck lower than for Jews (upper 60%), slightly higher than crimes against Catholics, and trails crimes against the “other” category. But this story allows the legacy media to resurrect images of evil, backward Christians in the South plotting terrible violence and injustice against the put-upon, peaceful Islamic minority. It allows the legacy media to demonize two groups or one if you prefer to see it as such, that it despises: Southerners and Christians. It plays into the media’s stereotypes of the ignorance and intolerance that is supposedly found in the Southerners as a group and the entirety of the Christian faith. It doesn’t matter that those are false impressions created by an elite that is as dogmatic in their beliefs as they believe the benighted Christians to be. They have adopted those images of Christians and Southerners to be true and nothing will dissuade them from that belief. And this slanted, over the top coverage of this event to be held by one small Florida congregation has been blown up to the point that Pakistanis are ready to riot over it, and Pakistani officials are predicting that the event will have dire consequences for relations between our governments. All because insular media elite have latched onto this one insignificant activity, by one obscure congregation among thousands, as emblematic of American Christian attitudes towards Islam.

In the end, this story is not about Pastor Terry Jones or his plan to publicly roast a few Korans; it is about the hypocrisy and mendacity of a significant portion of our legacy media, leftist activists, and government officials. It is about the propensity of the media to create scandals out of whole cloth; activists who claim to care about freedom, but really only care about their viewpoints; and public officials who fail to see the incongruence in arguing for the right of the Cordoba project to proceed apace as an act in furtherance of religious liberty, while simultaneously bringing public pressure to bear on a minister to halt a lawful, constitutionally protected Koran burning.

As for me, I say burn the Korans if you like. It doesn’t affect me one way or the other, as I sit here in North Carolina looking on from afar. Like the Cordoba initiative, I think it may be a bit provocative and evidence of poor judgment, but Pastor Jones has the same right to his protest as Imam Rouf has to his “cultural center.”