Sauce For The Gander Turning Out To Be Far Too Bitter To Swallow….

Well, at the time of writing and setting up for posting tomorrow morning, it seems the Florida Koran-B-Q is still on (despite a last-moment hiccup), and the outrage it is causing amongst the usual suspects is wonderful to behold.

The blogs have been excellent reading, with opinion divided between ‘Good idea!’, ‘Bad idea!’ and ‘A plague on ALL their houses!’…

Longrider points out that it’s just a book, and the furore in the ‘Muslim world’ is playing into the hands of those who point out the hypocrisy in their approach to other outrages, as noted by Blognor Regis.

The Nameless Libertarian thinks that ‘turn the other cheek’ instruction should come into play. It would, I'm sure, be more 'Christian', but I can't see that that has worked out so well for us so far.

Anna Raccoon thinks that this might, one day, come to be seen as a turning point.

TravelGall at A Very British Dude can see a potential upside…

For myself, I have to confess that the greatest pleasure is seeing Obama caught between the proverbial rock and hard place:

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's leader, has written to the American President asking him to personally intervene to stop irreparable damage to relations between the West and Muslims "threatening world peace".

Except, as we saw with the Victory Mosque….he can’t. Rightly so.

US law is quite clear on the restrictions the American public will accept on their freedom of speech, and this doesn’t meet that test.

The personal appeal from Indonesia will put President Obama, who spent four of his childhood years living in Jakarta, under intense pressure to ban the Koran burning in order to prevent a violent backlash across the Islamic world.

Yet if he does try, he’s going to get it in the neck from his own electorate, who only elected him by 52% and that support has been steadily waning since last November:

But Mr Obama is also under domestic pressure not to give into Muslims ahead of Saturday's ninth anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks amid a heated American row over Islam and a proposed mosque near New York's Ground Zero.

Heh! The buck stops with YOU, Obama. How do you feel about your triumphant ‘victory’ now?

And since they must realise they can’t count on the Obamassiah, they are turning to other options:

Rehman Malik, Pakistan's interior minister, has asked Interpol, the international police organisation to examine whether a Florida church's planned book burning can be banned to stop a "massive reaction" across the Muslim world.

Good luck with that…

Old conspiracy theories are being dusted off:

"This is a plan by Zionists to put the entire world into trouble, so it should be foiled," said Tariq Naeemullah, the head of the Joint Civic Front, a coalition of non-governmental organisations in Multan.

It seems other countries have whackadoodle quangos too! They’re more like us than we thought, eh?

General David Petraeus, the US military commander in Afghanistan has warned that the burning will have global repercussions and endanger US military personnel serving abroad.

Yes, it’ll make them plant IEDs and launch mortar attacks and…

Oh, wait.

Having seen where appeasement has got the West, the pastor isn’t for turning, and who can blame him?

Despite the mounting pressure, Terry Jones, the pastor of an tiny extremist Christian church in Florida, has dismissed the calls for him off a bonfire of 200 Korans, to mark 9/11.

"As of right now, we are not convinced that backing down is the right thing," he said.

But you can always count on someone to make more of an idiot of themselves than anyone else.

So step forward, Hillary, for your turn in the spotlight:

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State said: "It is regrettable that a pastor in Gainesville, Florida, with a church of no more than 50 people can make this outrageous and distrustful, disgraceful plan and get the world's attention."

Welcome to 2010, Hillary. It’s a whole new ball game now…