My first reaction to the Dove World story was to ignore it. After all, this church espouses a bizarre â€œIslam is evilâ€� message that reportedly has attracted only 50 members -- all of whom apparently skipped over the parts of the New Testatment where Jesus preaches tolerance for people of other faiths (remember the story of the good Samaritan?). But no matter: religious liberty is there in the First Amendment â€“ right next to freedom of speech â€“ as one of the core liberties upon which our nation was built. Dove World has every right to cling to its liturgy of intolerance whether it fits within my definition of Christianity or not. Thatâ€™s freedom of religion.



Unfortunately, Dove Worldâ€™s pathetic publicity stunt was vaulted to front-page news thanks to the message-spreading power of the Internet. It got even more credence when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, sent an email to the Associated Press warning that â€œimages of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan and around the world â€“ to inflame public opinion and incite violence.â€�



Gen. Patraeusâ€™ prediction may be correct â€“ images of Americans as anti-Muslim, book-burning fanatics surely hurt our efforts to win friends and influence people in Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East. Words have power â€“ and pictures multiply their impact a thousand-fold. Indeed, thatâ€™s why repressive dictatorships, including the Taliban, limit freedom of speech in order to ensure social order and control. These same regimes generally oppose religious liberty for the same reason.

What makes America different from these dictatorships â€“ and what makes our nation great â€“ is that our Constitution doesnâ€™t permit our government to silence speech or censor religious beliefs that it doesnâ€™t like. Ironically, these are very Constitutional freedoms that our men and women in uniform are risking their lives to defend on our behalf. We owe it to them to defend these freedoms at home â€“ even if it means defending speech that we hate or religious beliefs that we may not support.



The best response â€“ the patriotic response â€“ to Dove World's proposed book burning is to reaffirm our national commitment to religious and ethnic diversity. Such a reaffirmation is urgently needed at this sad period in American history, when anti-Muslim bigotry threatens to become mainstream political rhetoric.

Raising our individual and collective voices to counter intolerance is already happening across Ameria, including on the steps of the State House this week in Boston, where inter-faith leaders together reaffirmed their commitment to religious tolerance in our Commonwealth.



Now is the time for all voices of decency to speak out loud and clear to condemn bigotry and religious intolerance in all its manifestations, while reiterating the fundamental American right to religious liberty and protest as essential elements of the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom.