For Americans, it's the day that lives in infamy alongside the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A day stunned Americans watched images of an outrageous terrorist attack on U.S. soil. A day Americans saw their sense of untouchability go up in smoke as they watched the World Trade Center collapse.

Hard to believe nine years have passed. It's also hard to believe that the Dove World Outreach Center is moving ahead with plans to mark Saturday's solemn anniversary by burning Islam's most sacred text.

We first denounced the Gainesville church's "International Burn a Koran Day" last month. Since then, the planned desecration has drawn broad attention and equally broad condemnation from everyone from Gainesville's mayor to the pope.

Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, even appealed to the church's sense of patriotism. "Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan — and around the world — to inflame public opinion and incite violence" against U.S. troops, he warned. To no avail.

Undoubtedly, clips of the tiny church's bonfire of insanity will go viral. Anti-American groups will circulate footage as proof of an imagined U.S. war on Islam.

But retreat isn't an option for the Rev. Terry Jones, who pilots the 50-member non-denominational church that proclaims "Islam is of the Devil."

"Maybe it's time to send a message to radical Islam that we will not tolerate their behavior," he told The Associated Press.

True enough, the spread of radical Islam is alarming. Still, even though this debacle passes First Amendment muster, every good American should be outraged by plans to incinerate the Quran — an act historically associated with intolerance and hatred.

As Rabbi Marc Sack of the Tampa Rabbinical Association and Jonathan Ellis of the Tampa Jewish Federation put it in a recent letter to the Tampa Tribune, "As Jews, we have a tragic history of watching bigots and fanatics burn our books, and we know that very often book-burning is the beginning, not the end, of provocation and violence against a people."

It's almost certain the bonfire will feed the hyper-hysteria against Muslims.

"What we're trying to do is get people to wake up to what Islam is," said congregant Fran Ingram, who posted "Ten Reasons to Burn a Koran" on a church blog.

We'd suggest the radical idea of actually reading the text. Something Mr. Jones never has. But then, why let knowledge get in the way of a publicity stunt?

Since the controversy erupted, Dove's Facebook page has swelled to nearly 12,000 fans, its phone has been ringing off the hook, and Mr. Jones often has found himself "totally booked" with national TV crews. But newly minted fans of Mr. Jones — part Jeremiah Wright and P.T. Barnum — can buy his book, coffee mugs and T-shirts bearing the church's slogan.

Gainesville Mayor Craig Lowe called Dove "a tiny fringe group and an embarrassment to our community."

And communities around the globe have united in interfaith events to heal the divisiveness. That's where Americans can find hope. Every religion has its fanatics, from Muslims who brand America "the great Satan" to a pathetic church that would demonize an entire religion by setting afire its book of faith.

If nothing else, Dove's stunt should remind people of all faiths that they have a common foe in the hate-filled fringe groups that try to hijack religion for their own twisted purposes.