For the sake of argument, please allow me play Devil's advocate, with no aspersions meant toward Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who is planning the Qur'an burning.  While I agree that a "book burning" is not the most intelligent way to respond to Islamic ideology, and that it conjures images of fascists burning books as a form of censorship, the picture is not quite so clean cut.

Firstly, when the Mohammad cartoons were published, and then re-published, in Denmark, there was similar criticism that doing so would "radicalize" and "inflame" the Muslims.   We knew, or should have known, that Muslims would respond violently, so publishing them was an intentional provocation.  True, the Danes had the right to publish the cartoons, but they shouldn't exercise that right, out of respect for Islam and Muslims.

In that case, most of us agree that it was appropriate for the Danes to publish those cartoons, and that a right that cannot be exercised is no right at all.  So why is publishing drawings of Mohammad in Denmark defensible, but burning a Qu'ran in the U.S. is not?

Secondly, the Ground-Zero mosque has been defended with the argument, "it's their Constitutionally protected right to build a mosque wherever they want to."  If it's important to defend the Constitutionally protected right to build a mosque, then it should be important to defend the Constitutionally protected right to burn a Qur'an.  The Constitution is meant to be applied to all citizens equally.  If the exercise of our free rights makes members of some communities uncomfortable, then so be it.

Thirdly, there are many cases throughout history, where Muslims have intentionally defiled and destroyed the religious symbols and institutions of other religions, with little-to-no outcry from non-Muslims.  Not that non-Muslims should look to Muslims as guides for behavior, but the case can be made that what is good for the goose is good for the gander, and that a little reciprocity might (hey, anything's possible) engender a little empathy on the part of Muslims in the future.

Fourthly, Islam lays out rules for the proper disposal of old or damaged Qur'ans, and that process specifies that Qur'ans ... are to be burned.  In Florida today, and everywhere else old Qur'ans exist, Muslims are burning Qur'ans.  So this situation is not purely about burning Qur'ans, but has to do with who is burning the Qur'ans (Muslims = okay, kuffar = forbidden), and the intentions of the person doing the burning.  Once again it is asymmetrical, with one set of standards applied to Muslims and another, more restrictive set, to kuffar.

I agree that rational debate is preferable to emotional grandstanding.  But I feel some discomfort in the amount of pressure that is being applied to Pastor Jones and the Dove World Outreach Center.