Obama: Koran Burning, No; Flag Burning, Yes

From Floyd Reports:

Obama: Koran Burning, No; Flag Burning, Yes




Posted on September 9, 2010 by Ben Johnson

On Tuesday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called Pastor Terry Jones’ plan to hold a “Burn A Koran Day” on the ninth anniversary of 9/11 “unAmerican.” Hillary Clinton called it a “disrespectful, disgraceful act.” And just this morning, Barack Obama said the proposed event was “completely contrary to our values as Americans.” He cited local fire ordinances that might be used against the church if it proceeds and called on Jones to cancel the Mohammedan bonfire.



Although he tried to stop the desecration of Korans, Obama showed no such concern for the American flag. In June 2006, Senator Obama voted against the Hatch Amendment, a proposed constitutional amendment that read in full: “The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.” It failed by one vote.



In an official statement explaining his vote, the future president said even debating the issue of flag burning was “a disservice to our country” and agreed that banning flag desecration “would destroy part of freedom itself.”



He added that he was “hard-pressed to find more than a few instances of flag burning each year” perpetrated by a few lonely souls.



This weekend’s happening is the only Koran burning in the country. Dove World Outreach Center of Gainesville, Florida, has 50 members.



Obama now states, correctly, that burning the Koran may endanger American soldiers overseas. But so, too would his decision last year to release up to 2,000 of photos of Americans abusing Muslim detainees, which virtually the entire military establishment said would supercharge al-Qaeda recruitment. He eventually relented.



When a Christian pastor threatens, however distastefully, to burn the Muslim scriptures, Obama’s rhetorical condemnation knows no bounds. He even cited local laws police could use against the church. But when the issue is burning a flag or building a mosque at Ground Zero, his only interest is protecting the constitutionally guaranteed rights of his constituents (America-hating Muslims and America-hating liberals, respectively). Throw in a globetrotting childhood being raised by a far-Left mother, the influence of Frank Marshall Davis, more than a decade of drinking in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, and his all-consuming obsession with America’s “tragic” history, and one gets a clearer picture why he does not cross his heart during the National Anthem, wear a flag pin, or vote to ban flag desecration.[1] Add to that Obama’s statements about the “Holy Quran” and the Muslim call to prayer being “one of the prettiest sounds on earth,” and the picture becomes clearer yet.



Obama does not oppose flag burning, because most people only oppose desecrating something they love.



ENDNOTES:



1. Obama voted for a Democratic alternative offered by senior Illinois Senator Dick Durbin that would have outlawed flag burning on public property, or with the intention to incite violence. However, since the Supreme Court has ruled the First Amendment protects this act, the bill would have almost certainly been ruled unconstitutional. It was a flag burning smokescreen.