Terry Jones, the pastor of a little known church in Florida, first came to attention during the hysteria that surrounded the proposed Park51 project in New York last year. His threat to burn the Qur'an was given way too much attention than it deserved and he ended up topping the list of the most notorious. At that time, he backed off from his threat to burn the Qur'an. However, he apparently missed being in the spotlight and decided to go ahead and burn the Qur'an on March 20, 2011.

This incident, although despicable and abhorrent, did not deserve our time and attention. Rightly so, the mainstream local and international media ignored him and his attempts to incite discord and hate between Christians and Muslims. American Muslims also did not make a big deal of his hateful actions.

The Qur'an, which Muslims believe to be a continuation and culmination of messages to humanity from God, resides in the hearts of millions of Muslims all around the world. Despicable actions, like those of Terry Jones, do little to impact its sublime message or its sanctity.

Unfortunately, this incident was hyped up by unscrupulous Afghan leaders that resulted in the killing of innocent people. I read about this violent reaction with great disappointment. Using the pretext of saving the honor of the Qur'an, Afghan mobs killed innocent people and in the process dishonored the Qur'an. The Qur'an prohibits taking innocent life as clearly mentioned in chapter 5 verse 32, "Owing to that [first instance of murder] We ordained for the children of Israel that whosoever takes an innocent life for other than retribution for murder or murderous sedition in the land, it is as if he has killed all of humanity, and whoever saves a life it is as if he has saved all of humanity."

While explaining this verse, Imam Zaid Shakir says, "The reason for this is that the life of a single innocent person has the sanctity of the lives of all humanity. This is an ideal we cannot let die. If we allow it to die who will revive it? Human history has shown how quickly we can begin a free fall into murderous madness once we have entered upon the path that justifies murdering innocent civilians and other noncombatants... When Muslims do it, we are betraying our faith and the legacy of the Prophets, peace be upon them, who have left us a wealth of timeless, enduring wisdom." History is a witness to the fact that when some people are willing to burn books, there is nothing that will stop them from burning people in the future. As an American, I am deeply concerned about the potential of these hate groups to take this hate to the next level. Muslims, Jews, Christians, and people of faith or no faith, must together work hard to counter these hate groups. Several hate groups are vying with each other in their hate for Islam to the extent that this enormity has even seeped into the election campaigns of "mainstream" politicians who are unashamedly anti-Muslim in their stance. At least until the 2012 presidential elections are over, I can only expect this hate to increase to a point that we have never seen before. Now is the time for people of conscience to step up and uphold the values of our respective religions and our country against hate.