Quran-Burning Pastor Deflects Blame of Protests and Killings in Afghanistan

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/terry-jones-abc-news-bill-weir-transcript/story?id=13277067&page=2

Background:
In July 2010, Terry Jones, pastor of a church in Gainesville, Florida declared he would burn 200 Qurans on the 2010 anniversary of the devastating events on September 11. His declaration received much media attention, resulting in international outrage and pleas from world leaders to cancel the event. In early September 2010, He canceled the burning and promised to never burn a Quran. On March 20, 2011 Pastor Jones held a "trial of the Quran" in his church. Pastor Jones and jurors found the Quran to be “guilty” of “crimes against humanity”. Then the Quran was burnt in Jones' church. On April 1,2011, upon hearing the news, protesters in the northern Afghanistan, attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission, killing at least 30 people, including at least seven U.N. workers and injuring at least 150 people. Jones disclaimed any responsibility for the killings which resulted in 5 days of protests.

The following is an excerpt from a transcript from ABC News' Bill Weir's interview with Pastor Terry Jones on Jones' response to the United Nations saying their staffers were killed in Afghanistan during a violent protest over his Koran burning.

Weir: When you got news of today's deadly riots there in Afghanistan, what was the first thought that went through your head?

Jones: Yeah, yeah of course we were very saddened and devastated by that. It is of course a terrible thing anytime anyone is killed. Anytime someone's life is cut short through murder or even accident. I think it definitely does prove that there is a radical element of Islam. I believe we need to take this evidence, we need to take this action and those people and those countries should be held accountable. I believe the U.S. needs to stand up. I believe the UN needs to stand up to countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Muslim-dominated countries. They have been persecuting, killing Christians for generations.

Jones: I believe that it's time that we stand up and force them, encourage them to adapt human rights into their laws, into their constitution and that these types of actions should not be allowed.

Argument

In this portion of the interview Pastor Jones presents two arguments. One that concludes the fact that there is a radical element of Islam proven by the riots and killings of U.N. employees in Afghanistan.

P: U.N. employees in Afghanistan were killed during protests over Pastor Jones’ burning the Quran.

C: There is a radical element of Islam.

The other states:

P1: There is a radical element of Islam.

P2: They [Muslims] have been persecuting, killing Christians for generations.

C: The U.S. and the U.N. need to stand up to Muslim-dominated countries and force/encourage them to adapt human rights into their laws/constitution. These types of actions should not be allowed and those countries should be held accountable.

C2: Jones and his church put the Quran on trial then burnt it to bring awareness of this radical element of Islam. (Jones seems to be providing evidence for this conclusion throughout the interview, but he never directly states it wholly.)

Ambiguity

First, I believe we should try to identify what Pastor Jones means when he states that there is a "radical element of Islam". Several times during this interview, Jones uses the term "radical Islam" or says things like wanting to, " make an awareness of the radical element of Islam." The end of this interview sheds more light on Jones' definition of this ambiguous term.

Weir: But here's the ironic part to your argument there [cross talk]. The timing of this comes at a time of unprecedented awakening across the Arab world--people are motivated by what you are talking about, democracy, freedom of speech, taking to the streets--not a religious movement, purely a democratic, populist movement, but now this incident--and the headlines will be that this is a result of your actions--may help derail that very thing that you're asking for. Doesn't that strike you as ironic timing?

Jones: I don't think it will do that. As I said, I believe that it is time to raise that awareness. it is time that moderate Muslims who desire to have freedom of speech, freedom of religion--that is truly going on in those countries. It is not an opportunity for the Muslim brother hood or some other radical group to take over. And we think that even moderate Muslims could stand up and they could speak out against Jihad, against Sharia, against the radical element of Islam.

From the end of this interview, we see that Jones himself defines the term "radical element of Islam" or "radical Islam" as two different things:

1) radical Muslim groups

2) radical elements of the religion, Islam, itself (laws and beliefs)

In the beginning of his ending response when he talks about Moderate Muslims, Jones identifies this term as Muslim radical groups who are followers of Islam. However when Jones mentions Jihad and Sharia at the end of his response, he implicates that he defines this term as literally there being a radical element of the religion, Islam, itself. Jihad and Sharia Law are both Islamic terms found in the Quran and they also have differing interpretations in meaning or are followed differently by all Muslims.

Symptoms
(Analysis of Fallacies)

Now, we are going to analyze Jones' second argument which consists of several fallacies. First, he commits the fallacy of ambiguity, equivocation. Above we already established that Jones' presents two different interpretations of the term "radical element of Islam". In the premises of Jones' argument, he presents evidence in support of the first meaning of the term "radical element of Islam". However in his conclusion, he mainly focuses on the second interpretation of the ambiguous term which causes his argument to be invalid and fallacious.

Second, he commits the fallacy of weak induction, hasty generalization. Jones provides evidence in both arguments that there are radical Muslim groups and countries that have persecuted and killed Christians; however, he implies in his conclusion that all Muslim-dominated countries have done these things and should be held accountable.

Lastly, he commits the fallacy of presumption, begging the question. Jones tries to validate his conclusion by providing evidence that relates to the conclusion but it does not entirely and logically supply support for the conclusion. His argument begs the question "Does the fact that some radical Muslim groups and Muslim-dominated countries have persecuted and killed Christians for generations gives the U.N. and U.S. the right to hold all Muslim-dominated countries accountable?" Over 1.5 billion people are followers of Islam and approximately fifty countries are predominantly Muslim.

Diagnosis

Pastor Terry Jones' arguments are plagued with several fallacies in this interview. He commits the more obvious fallacy of hasty generalization and fallacy of ambiguity (equivocation). In this case, he also commits the more subtle fallacy of presumption (begging the question). So due to these symptoms, this argument is in Critical Condition.