What’s the American Way to Fight the Planned 9/11 “Burn a Koran Day”?

Flickr/ <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27557398@N04/2568956062/">Doctor Yuri</a> (Creative Commons)

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By now, you may have heard of “Burn a Koran Day,” the, ahem, brainchild of Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center and its Islam-hatin’ pastor Terry Jones. (No, not that Terry Jones. Thankfully.) Apparently the pastor is jonesing for some 9/11 headlines, so he’s exhorting his nondenominational Christian flock to show unity on the anniversary of the “attack on America” by going Fahrenheit 451 on Islam’s holy book. It’s a move that’s been widely attacked, even by such political quietists as Gen. David Petraeus in Kabul. (Jones’ book-burning campaign “is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems—not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community,” says Petraeus.)

Enter the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which has been combating the spectre of old-school, end-times Christian proselytizing in the armed forces’ ranks since 2005. The group has vowed that for every Koran Jones’ minions char, they’ll donate a new one to the Afghan National Army…via Petraeus. Says MRFF in a press release:

After being contacted by scores of our active duty military clients asking us to do something in response to Terry Jones’s planned “Burn A Koran Day,” MRFF has decided that the most appropriate response would not be to try to stop Jones, but to donate to the Afghan National Army, as a gesture of good will and a statement of opposition to this entirely un-American act of religious bigotry, a new Qur’an for each one destroyed by Jones and his followers.

As if that wasn’t enough First Amendment-flexing for you, MRFF also plans to run a full-page ad in Friday’s Gainesville Sun, Jones’ local paper:

Kinda makes you proud to be an American, aywot?

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We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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