A small Florida church’s plans to throw gasoline on the fire of worldwide Islamic extremism tomorrow, the 9th anniversary of 9/11, were suspended Thursday evening. The Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida, had planned on burning copies of the Koran at their self-proclaimed “International Burn a Koran Day” event.

Pastor Terry Jones, the Center’s leader, and his 50-member congregation gave many reasons for the event, all of which revolve around standing up to radical Islam. Given how Muslims rioted and killed in 2005 over simple cartoon caricatures of Mohammed, the odds of an ugly reaction were guaranteed.

The plans led to calls from almost everyone, including the White House, the State Department, the Vatican, and numerous Christian churches, among others, for the church to cancel the event. Even General David Petraeus, U.S. commander in Afghanistan, waded into the controversy, saying that the Koran burning “could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort.” Demonstrations in Afghanistan had already occurred.

Needless to say, the proposed Koran burning was nothing more than an ugly provocation, and, aided by the American Leftmedia, it likely would have put, at least temporarily, American troops, as well as civilians and Christians worldwide, at greater risk from Islamic violence than they already are.

That said, the incident gives rise to some hard questions. For starters, should it have been stopped because it’s a horrendously bad act of Christian faith, or because of the fear of Islamic violence? Is Islam exempt from criticism *because* of its violent reactions? (We should note that we don’t think church participants would have “blood on their hands,” as some in the Leftmedia have charged, because Islamic rioters and insurgents are responsible for their own actions.) Are Islam and Liberty mutually exclusive? And what about the church’s First Amendment rights?

For years, Westerners have been murdered by Islamists, and then blamed for having provoked the murders. America has been lectured on the need to accept Islamic culture, then falsely accused of intolerance by that same violent, intolerant culture, as the Ground Zero mosque controversy illustrates. Indeed, the same “tolerant” Leftists who find no problem with the mosque were aghast at the planned Koran burning.

As an aside, this video is a fascinating look at Islam and is worth the time.

Given that the event was planned by a Christian church, we in our humble shop are glad that they did the Christ-like thing by canceling the event. We hope that they further point out the truth that their non-violent plans led to credible threats of Islamic violence, and then offer their true, heartfelt Christian prayers for Liberty throughout the world for all people.