Enemies of Freedom

The possibility still exists that U.S. sect leader Terry Jones will abandon his plan to publicly burn several hundred copies of the Koran on Saturday, the anniversary of 9/11. Nonetheless, here is a hypothetical mind game: Imagine Jones takes that step and actually resorts to the archaic practice of book burning and not one single media organization covers the event.

Of course, that’s an illusion far distanced from the reality of today’s media society. However, the case is an example of the dangers inherent in a free society: Burning Islam’s holy book would be done with full awareness of the possible ramifications that would follow.

But what to do about it?

Jones has a constitutionally guaranteed right to express his outrage by burning the Koran, no matter how perfidious his act may seem to others. Should the U.S. Constitution be suspended in order to keep one fanatic from carrying out this act?

Such a breach would be an even greater victory for Jones and his followers, who could then claim that the U.S. government was willing to restrict an individual’s personal liberty in order to placate radical Islam.

One cannot impress fanatics by taking away their constitutional rights because their provocations are aimed directly at the same freedoms they want to deny to others – in this case Muslims. Trading liberty for security is a dangerous route for any liberal democracy to take.

The fact that an obviously deranged preacher with a mini-congregation can cause such waves around the globe is a sure sign of a media-based reality ready to abandon any sense of responsibility or values it has. Jones speaks for no one but himself. The enemies of freedom shamelessly use this freedom for their own purposes. When Jones now patronizingly suggests he might change his mind if the White House telephones and requests it, he only mocks his critics further.

It would be far more effective if the media machinery would quit trying to make every nutcase into a global firebrand.