Is burning the Quran bigotry?

Personally, I think a Quran-burning rally is an empty gesture, since it will accomplish little and make the individuals behind it look like reactionary yahoos. It would be much more effective for the group to pressure the media to critically examine the tenets of Islam, in order to begin a real dialogue about the threat that Islam poses to this country and what can be done about it.

If there is a reasonable solution to this problem, this is the place to begin.  But it would demand scholarship and honesty on the part of the media, without the baggage of political correctness and preconceived opinions.  Given the present state of news reporting, this would be a monumental task.

The stakes are high.  Just last week, Iranian cleric Mesbah Yazdi said, “Democracy, freedom, and human rights have no place” in Islam. Call me a bigot, if you will, but we have to do whatever it takes to keep such a system off our shores. After all, what are we fighting for?

Barrett Kalellis is a Michigan-based columnist and writer whose articles appear regularly in various local and national print publications, and has been a featured pundit for several political web sites.