Do Two Wrongs Make A Right?
The BBC today released an article entitled “Petraeus: Koran burning plan will endanger US troops” concerning Pastor Terry Jones’s plan to “send a clear message to the radical element of Islam” by burning copies of the Koran. For every main religion such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, sacred text or texts are held in high regard. Applying that same logic, it becomes hard to hold the upper moral ground if one follows tactics used by “the radical element of Islam”. When it comes to sending a message it is often always best to lead by example.
Playing devil’s advocate one can argue that it is hard to reason, let alone set a different and positive example, when dealing with extremists but essentially everybody on the metaphorical playing field is human and hence an individual capable of being changed. While that is an overly simplistic and optimistic perspective, it is not 100% utter cow patties.
The BBC quoted a CNN moment where Pastor Terry Jones remarked, “How long do we back down?”
This raises a change in perspective where aggression is seen as progress and anything less is seen as retreating. Unlike a game of checkers, where the objective is to advance to the opposing side become crowned and then gain unprecedented mobility, the whole issue of battles and wars is significantly more complex where outside factors have significant impacts on the overall objective.
Ultimately, parents try to teach their children at an early age that violence is never the answer and perhaps if some extremists had better parents who advocated peaceful resolution they wouldn’t be so extreme, but in a climate different from Britain, Canada, or the United States of America, the outside factors shaping youth to ‘hate versus appreciate’ are numerous already without a Pastor preaching to burn a sacred text. This is one fire that should not be further fuelled.
*Note: This entry is far too short to fully do the topic justice. There are many perspectives which have been left out, from soldiers who return scarred from battle, to children whose parents have been killed, and ultimately each deserves an entire case study.
