We seem to have slipped into one of those vortices in which people are trying to surpass one another in oafish behavior. I would have found it difficult to imagine anything that could do more to aggravate the already strained relations between Islam and Christianity than building a mosque at New York’s Ground Zero. But then, I don’t have Terry Jones’ imagination. Jones is the senior pastor at the ironically misnamed Dove World Outreach Center, a puny fundamentalist church in Florida. This otherwise inconsequential man has drawn considerable attention to himself by declaring today, Sept. 11, 2010, “International Burn a Quran Day” — although it would be more accurate to say that the mainstream news media have focused considerable attention on him by weaving him into their “America is Islamophobic” narrative. He intends to recognize the anniversary of 9/11 by burning a stack of Qurans/Michael Costello, Lewiston Tribune. More here.

Question: Who’s more to blame for the fervor surrounding Terry Jones’ threat to burn the Quran — the mainstream media or the online media?

Pastor Terry Jones, right, of the Dove World Outreach Center is surrounded by the media after he held a joint news conference with Imam Muhammad Musri of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, left, Thursday in Gainesville, Fla. Jones announced at a news conference today that he’d call off his plans to burn the Quran on Sept. 11 as a result of an agreement that a mosque/Islamic center wouldn’t be built near Ground Zero in New York City. Story here. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Question: I notice the crazies from that Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., say they’re going to burn the Quran, if Jones doesn’t. Do you think the Middle East crazies are able to tell our crazies apart & realize that Fred Phelps doesn’t represent American Christianity either?

President Barack Obama is exhorting a Florida minister to “listen to those better angels” and call off his plan to engage in a Quran-burning protest this weekend. Obama told ABC’s “Good Morning America” in an interview aired Thursday that he hopes the Rev. Terry Jones of Florida listens to the pleas of people who have asked him to call off the plan. The president called it a “stunt.” “If he’s listening, I hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values as Americans,” Obama said. “That this country has been built on the notion of freedom and religious tolerance.” “And as a very practical matter, I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women who are in uniform,” the president added/Associated Press. More here. (AP photo: Khalid Tanveer, of a Pakistani protesting Terry Jones’ plans to burn Quran)

Question: Should President Obama have gotten involved in this controversy?

Afghans move banners saying “Quran is our law, Islam is our religion” during a demonstration against the United States, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Monday. Hundreds of Afghans railed against the U.S. and called for President Barack Obama’s death at a rally in the capital Monday to denounce the American church’s plans to burn the Islamic holy book on 9/11. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)

Question: Which group of fundamentalist radicals scare you most — America’s (Rev. Terry Jones) or the ones above?

Nick Anderson/Houston Chronicle

Rev. Terry Jones poses for a photo at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., recently. Jones vowed to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the  Quran  to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops overseas. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

Question: Are the fears of President Obama and a top general in Afghanistan real — that a protest that involves burning the Quran will endanger American fighting men & women?