Note: Written for an "American Government" course, this post discusses a recent issue that I held strong opinions regarding, and serves as an example of the kind of cultural and political discussion I wish to encourage here. The "Wilson and Dilulio" I reference are the authors of my primary text for the class.
Outrage was sparked across the country and around the world in September of last year as Terry Jones, the pastor of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, prepared to burn a copy of the Qur’an on the ninth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks (Milligan). Practically every public official and media figure in the nation denounced Jones’s plan and urged him to stand down. Their argument stemmed from the well-grounded fear that such a public act of disrespect for the Islamic holy book would put American lives in Afghanistan at risk.
Jones appeared to relent, and for months he and his church remained silent. Then, on March 20, Jones and the Outreach Center posted evidence online that Islam and the Qur’an had been put on “trial” for “crimes against humanity” and that, upon a guilty sentence, the latter had been doused with kerosene and set aflame (Sieff). As so many had predicted, this action provoked three days of protesting and the storming of a U.N. installation in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan. No less than twenty people affiliated with the U.N. were killed (Malcolm).
Never mind the fact that Afghan reaction to Jones’s mad-dog “ministry” is itself a further example of the effects of intemperate rhetoric and sensationalism (local Muslim religious leaders apparently made fallacious announcements that a hundred copies of the Qur’an were burned) (Malcolm). It could easily have been prevented. By any reasonable standard, what Jones did was reckless, pointless, and stupid. Some, like Republican Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, believe that such acts of symbolic speech and speech in general should be prohibited in times of war like the one we face as a country today (Tenety).
According to Wilson and Dilulio, however, present day Supreme Court decisions, with the gradual decline of cold war tensions, have tended to lean more towards free expression overall (104). True, Oliver Wendell Holmes’s “clear and present danger test” is still a crucial element in First Amendment cases (103). But did Terry Jones and his burning of the Qu’ran create a clear and present danger?
American troops and U.N. officials in Afghanistan must certainly think so. The attacks in Mazar-i-sharif and other violent protests elsewhere were directly linked to the burning, and according to General David Petraeus, Jones has singlehandedly “[endangered] the war effort” and permanently increased the risks for American personnel in the Middle East (Trofimov and Abi-Habib).
While Jones certainly presented a danger in American interests abroad, however, his actions did not at any time seem to present an imminent threat to American lives or government domestically. In our disdain for “Reverend” Jones and his church, we might wish for action to be taken against both on behalf of our troops. The Court, on the other hand, seems to rule largely that the clear and present danger clause applies only to internal affairs and consequences. Holmes and his fellow justices described the “clear and present danger” clause of the First Amendment as applying only to actions that will “bring about substantive evils that Congress has a right to prevent” (Wilson and Dilulio 103). After all, Congress might have the right to prevent treason or the lawlessness within our borders, but it cannot do anything to control the people of Afghanistan.
So however reprehensible his abuse of First Amendment rights in this case, we cannot say that Terry Jones has truly gone beyond them. As a citizen of this nation, he, too, is protected by the same Constitution we would defame if we were to deny him equal coverage. We can only hope that his actions shame both him and his followers, and prevent future provocation by those who share their worldview.
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