The Dove World Outreach Center's hateful plan to burn Qurans on Sept. 11 prompts a lot of responses from people.
There are folks who decry this extremist group's plan but believe any response gives Dove the attention it seeks. Their solution is to just ignore this open act of aggression against Muslims.
There's another group who believes Gainesville should respond to Dove but ought to do so indirectly by holding separate events on different days promoting peace, tolerance and love.
I fall into a third camp.
It's because I believe Gainesville is a crucial battleground in the fight against hate and bigotry that I will march and protest against the Dove World Outreach Center on Sept. 11.
It's understandable why many people are reluctant to directly protest the burning of Qurans. Ideally, Dove wouldn't receive any media coverage, and it would be ignored on the sidelines as the fringe group it is.
That didn't happen.
The New York Times ran a full story on one of Dove's repugnant events
last Thursday. In July, CNN's Rick Sanchez interviewed Terry Jones, the pastor-turned-architect of this hateful act.
Various Turkish media outlets began preliminary coverage on the event last week, and I've been told Al-Jazeera - the largest international news network in the Arab world - will be present to cover Dove on Sept. 11.
The truth is that discrimination against Muslims and racism toward Arabs is widespread and pervasive in the United States. Although very few Americans agree with Dove's methods, far too many people are complicit in the kind of fear, intolerance and hate that lie at the root of this horrible event.
It's precisely this spirit of exclusion and hostility that fuels support for conflict in the Middle East and Asia.
Ignoring racism and bigotry doesn't have a very good track record of success.
On Sept. 11, the world will fix its attention on Gainesville for a reason other than the Gator's football skills.
The reactionaries and extremists from the Dove World Outreach Center want our town to be defined by hostility toward Muslims, and whether it's five or 50 people burning Qurans, we're going to be judged internationally based on our responses to this hateful act.
Will people leave the USF game and go home, believing that by not standing against Islamophobia they were somehow depriving the extremists of the attention they seek?
Or will Gator fans of all races, genders and faiths come out in droves to show the world hate and marginalization aren't welcome in Gainesville?
I want to be judged based on the latter.
Students for a Democratic Society is organizing a peaceful but direct protest against the burning of Qurans, and it will meet Monday at 6: 30 p.m. in Anderson, Room 32. Anyone interested in fighting hate is welcome to come and help plan this event.
Dave Schneider is a member of UF's chapter of Students for a Democratic Society.
