Bloomberg Defends Pastor's Right to Burn Quran

TPT: Well at least he is being consistant- unlike most of the rest of the crowd........

 

"Bloomberg Defends Pastor's Right to Burn Quran"

By Michael Howard Saul

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people
we despise, we don't believe in it at all." - Noam Chomsky

"New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended on Tuesday a Florida pastor's right to burn copies of the Quran during a public demonstration on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "In a strange way I'm here to defend his right to do that. I happen to think that it is distasteful. I don't think he would like it if somebody burnt a book that in his religion he thinks is holy," Mr. Bloomberg said during a news conference updating the public on the progress of rebuilding at the World Trade Center site. "But the First Amendment protects everybody," Mr. Bloomberg said, "and you can't say that we're going to apply the First Amendment to only those cases where we are in agreement."

Terry Jones, pastor at the Gainesville, Fla.,-based Dove World Outreach Center, a 50-member Christian church, ignited a firestorm when he recently announced plans to burn copies of the Muslim holy book this Saturday to mark the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The proposed public torching has already sparked protests in Afghanistan, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, among others, warned Tuesday it could put Western troops there at risk. The church has been denied a city permit for the demonstration, but the pastor has said he plans to go forward with the protest.  MORE