Nothing besides idiocy of course.

Well seeing how this IS about public opinion, I would like to hear some more. Besides, no one ever said it was illegal to burn the Koran.

Also, I believe your wrong about how there is nothing at issue here besides public opinion. Public opinion is influenced and influences, vice-versa. While you might think there is nothing at issue, there are consequences and implications of the actions of Terry Jones and his followers and of 9/11.

The issue is (or was or might still be is) that the way Terry Jones acts because he currently is in a position of power with the ability to influence foreign policy at most, is causing problems between relations between the US and other countries. US soft power is down the drain already.

The US just recovered a bit from the pullout of military operations and as relations are now, its not the time to act rash. The US is having a hell of a time trying to cool things down because of Terry Jones. Hell, even the Christians are condemning him.

Its not an issue about public opinion anymore. Its about Foreign Policy and Mid-East Peace.

And Public Opinion does count for something. Did you not see what it did to George W. Bush?

Read up on this:

http://www.allacademic.com//meta/p_mla_ ... 1397-1.php

[Borch, C. A. and Weakliem, D. , 2005-08-12 "Unequal Influence? The Effect of Public Opinion on Policy in the U.S. States" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Marriott Hotel, Loews Philadelphia Hotel, Philadelphia, PA Online <PDF>. 2009-05-25 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p21397_index.html]

If you want, I give you some more evidence. Policy Debate ftw.

Here are some examples and a specific which might be above your pay-grade.

http://ijpor.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/269.short

http://www.pipa.org/articles/todorov_opinion.pdf

HEY GRIF.
WERE WE DEBATING ON WHETHER NOT IT WAS LEGAL OR UNCONSTITUTIONAL FOR HIM TO DO THIS?

Of course not. All of us (or most of us) know our rights, and freedom of speech is the biggest. Of course he's got every right to burn the Quran, and those people have every right to build a mosque/community center within blocks of where 9/11 happened. We know that. We're just talking about possible consequences, and if they were smart in doing it.Possible consequences: Nothing except angry rednecks. Are either group being totally intelligent? Nope.

LET US DEBATE IN PEACE, DAMNIT.
Actually Leon could be saying it's illegal. I didn't really read or understand many of his posts.

Burning the holy book of a religion with malicious intent is discrimination against the followers of that religion, which violates their rights for free practice of religion.
At least, that's how I see it.

Also, it's spelled Qur'an, not Q'uran or any other crazy way.

So, Leon, to summarize, what you're saying is this: It's better for our foreign policy with the Middle East to turn into an off-and-on police state which flagrantly disregards the ever-so-revered constitution.

It is better to set up a policy of governmental interdiction in the case of protest against religion, than to let one crazy ♥♥♥hole do his thing and not make a huge fuss about it.

Right. And, evidently, one crazy ♥♥♥hole burning a few Korans being stopped is going to balance out the karmic scale when weighed against, oh, I don't know; years and years of war.

ACTUALLY, MLC, IT'S SPELLED القرآن الكريم

Any other spelling is a bastardized Romanization; there is no "correct" way in any language other than Arabic.

:<
THE ONE WIKIPEDIA TITLE I READ SAID IT'S QUR'AN! >_>

inb4 politics discussion getting nowhere
I've got the cover off the lock button.

Where exactly would this conversation go, anyway? I think the only place it can go is politics, and possibly correct القرآن الكريم spellings.

Well I think everyone gets mad, not just the red-necks. Its not so much about intelligence. The core of Terry Jones' book burning is to "fight" Terrorism. But the problem is that he does not differentiate between Islam and Terrorism like so many others which is why he also has those signs that say "Islam is of the devil".

The sentiment is good but the way in which he is initiating actions in what we could isolate as "Patriotism", is not exactly the best way to protest or fight terrorism.

While we can guess that one possible consequence can be war/violence, the US is not on the brink and so it won't tip the world into possible war although I think its safe to guess and assume that it is one step towards a major future conflict. We have Terry Jones, 9/11, Operation Iraqi Freedom, The Dutch Cartoonist, the Beijing Olympics, and many other events. We barely avoided an Eastern War between North Korea, South Korea, China, and Taiwan.

If you want to extend this, war and conflict will draw in other countries (except perhaps Switzerland) like it always does.

And I'm trying to incite some debate but apparently nobody read my posts on the 1st page.

Perhaps I should rephrase:
Inb4 politics discussion turns into alterations of the basic pattern
"You're stupid!"
"No you're stupid!"

Ok new question:

What do you guys think is going to come out of the fact that he is going to NY to help negotiate the re-location of the mosque?

I think there are a few possible options here:

1. Hes doing it as compensation for his "threat"
2. Hes doing it as a trade-off for the re-location of the mosque.

What do you guys think?

Also, if you guys have ever taken Policy Debate, you guys would understand a lot more of my citations and what I'm saying.

I think he's just being a jackass.

I don't see this thread going anywhere in the foreseeable future.

Did you read the post I just posted?

Can you at least discuss the new question?
You guys are supposed to be thinking about this. Don't just answer based on your first thought.

Trade off seems more plausible, to me at least, but I think that the community center would have been fine, anyways. It's not like they're building it on top of the Pentagon, or anything... But then again, I am not from New York, nor was I very involved in the news at the time of the planes' crashing, and I probably don't understand how the experience was for the patriot Americans or the New Yorkers who lost family members...

Yea I agree, it does seem more like it. I don't think he's going to ditch his sale pitch after all the attention he attracted. I think he would rather go with what he has rather than lose all credibility with his followers and everyone else.

What I am wondering is whats going to happen after this. Nothing? Or a backlash from the Islamic community?

And just because you didn't have the same experience as those who lost people in the 9/11 attacks, it doesn't mean you lose credibility.