Terry Jones: How free speech and Quran burning can lead to violence

The violent reaction to Terry Jones burning the Quran at his tiny Florida church continued to spread Saturday, and with it questions about freedom of expression with murderous results.

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Scott Audette/Reuters/Files
Dove World Outreach Center church pastor Terry Jones speaks to the media in Gainesville, Florida in September 2010. Afghan protesters, angered by the apparent burning of a Quran by Jones last month, killed seven United Nations staff in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, on Friday. Nine more people were killed in Kandahar on Saturday.

The violent reaction to Terry Jones burning a copy of the Quran at the Florida pastor’s tiny church continued to spread Saturday, and with it questions about freedom of expression with murderous results.

Officials in Kandahar, Afghanistan, reported that nine people were killed and scores injured when a protest turned violent. This followed by one day the attack on a United Nations compound in Mazar-e Sharif in which five demonstrators and seven UN employees were killed.

Both episodes were directly linked to the recent burning of a Quran after Islam’s holy book had been “put on trial” by Pastor Jones and others at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla.

RELATED: 11 countries speaking out against Quran burning in Florida

Jones first became notoriously newsworthy last year when he threatened to burn a Quran on the anniversary of the 911 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Only when US Army Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of coalition forces in Afghanistan, warned that the defamation of the Quran would likely cost the lives of US service men and women did Jones call off his "International Burn the Koran Day." Defense Secretary Robert Gates had called Jones as well.

The violent protests Friday and Saturday appear to have been encouraged if not instigated by those opposed to the American-led western presence in Afghanistan, including supporters of the Taliban. A high school for girls supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was among the targets.

For his part, Jones (who’s also written a book titled "Islam is of the Devil”) is unrepentant.

“Of course we were very saddened and devastated by that,” he told ABC News. “It is of course a terrible thing anytime anyone is killed.”

But, he went on, “I think it definitely does prove that there is a radical element of Islam.”

“I believe we need to take this evidence, we need to take this action and those people and those countries should be held accountable,” he said. “I believe the US needs to stand up. I believe the UN needs to stand up to countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Muslim-dominated countries. They have been persecuting, killing Christians for generations.”

On its web site, the Dove World Outreach Center describes Islam as “a violent and oppressive religion that is trying to masquerade itself as a religion of peace, seeking to deceive our society.”

Meanwhile, Jones plans to join an “anti-Sharia law” protest outside the Islamic Center of America on April 22 in Dearborn, Mich., which has a large population of Arab Americans. The protest has been organized by an obscure northern Michigan militia group called “Order of the Dragon.”

Religious leaders in the area are concerned about the impact of such an event.

"Everything he's doing here is a violation of the Gospel," Pastor Ed Rowe of the Central United Methodist Church told the Fox News affiliate in Detroit.

The controversial Westboro Baptist Church also has burned the Quran. The Topeka, Kan., church is best known for its anti-gay protests, often held at the funerals of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

While such activities held by the Westboro Baptist Church and the Dove World Outreach Center may be highly offensive to most Americans – and may, in fact, incite others to violence – they are generally protected as free speech.

Last month, the US Supreme Court upheld the right of the Westboro Baptist Church to hold its protests at military funerals.

“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and – as it did here – inflict great pain,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion for a case brought by the father of a Marine killed in Iraq. “On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker.”

RELATED: 11 countries speaking out against Quran burning in Florida

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