Dude rides to rescue, strikes blow for religious sanity
There’s a story behind this picture.
David Grisham, a part-time pastor and leader of a wacked-out “Christian” extremist group calling itself “Repent Amarillo,” announced plans to burn a Koran Saturday at Sam Houston Park in Amarillo.
Protestors showed up, many from the local Unitarian Universalist Church. Grisham and his supporters showed up. Grisham soaked a copy of the Koran in lighter fluid and prepared to burn it on a park grill. Protestors placed their hands on the grill, to prevent the desecration.
That’s when Jacob Isom, the shirtless dude clutching his skateboard in the picture above, swooped in.
“I snuck up behind him and took his Koran,” Isom chuckles in the news report below. “He said something about burning the Koran. I was like, ‘Dude, you HAVE no Koran,’ and I took off.’”
Isom later gave the rescued Koran to a grateful but unidentified leader of an Amarillo Muslim congregation, who in the picture above clutches the book in one hand and Isom in the other. Grisham, his sad little publicity stunt sabotaged through divine, or at least skateboarder, intervention, got into his car and left.
Just another Saturday in the park in the crazy place we call the United States of America.
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314 comments Add your comment
A sofa spud responds
September 13th, 2010
7:46 am
Radical Islam demands that the Koran Thief’s hand be cut off for stealing. No, wait, that’s the bible.
Nevermind. Continue to hate yourselves, America, your projection is showing. Freud would have a field day. “So when did you start fantasizing about the Statute of Liberty, Mr. Revere?”
If only some one had swooped in and taken Bush’s copy of “My Pet Goat” on 911, eh?
I am announcing my intention to burn my own copy of My Pet Goat today along with my autographed copy of Mein Pet Kampf. At Piedmont Park at 2pm.
Be there, or be a brown shirt.
(I meant brown eye).
Night Train
September 13th, 2010
7:48 am
Good for Jacob Isom !
Normal
September 13th, 2010
7:49 am
‘Dude, you HAVE no Koran,’ Bumper sticker stuff…gotta love it!
seeitall
September 13th, 2010
7:52 am
The only extremist religion is Islam and it must be tamed. Quit making excuses for them.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 13th, 2010
7:59 am
Isn’t that robbery, dude?
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:00 am
“The only extremist religion is Islam”
Don’t get out much, do ya?
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:02 am
seeitall – yep – no christians would ever do anything extremist like shoot abortion providers or bomb clinics …
Carlosgvv
September 13th, 2010
8:02 am
Real religious sanity will occur when all religions voluntarily submit their belifs to the same rigorous scientific standards that we require from physics, chemistry and math. Since it is clear this will never happen, I think the term “wacked-out” is a good definition of all religions in general.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:03 am
great story, Jay – and a perfect way to start the week! (and Amarillo – whoda thunk they let the hippie set outside the Austin City Limits)
Paulo977
September 13th, 2010
8:04 am
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS ETC ETC ETC!!!NOT EXTREMIST????
Normal
September 13th, 2010
8:04 am
seeitall
September 13th, 2010
7:52 am
“The only extremist religion is Islam and it must be tamed. Quit making excuses for them.”
This kind of over simplistic statement is why Islam is considered “extreme”. I submit that the Koran burners are just as extreme in their beliefs too. Not all of Islam is bad and not all of Christianity is good.
There are people out there who are truly frightened by what they are hearing by the fear and hatred mongers and there are people out there who will try to use that fear to get elected. The former are being used by the latter. Sad part is, it seems to be working. Sadder part is, the fearful are believing what they see on the evening news at face value…Just sayin’
I Report :-) You Whine :-( mmm, mmmm, mmmmm! Just sayin...
September 13th, 2010
8:06 am
I’d like to side up with middle aged skateboard loser, what a great role model, but I’m not one with the useful idiots.
Enjoy your “victory.”
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:07 am
” submit their belifs to the same rigorous scientific standards that we require from physics, chemistry and math.”
right…because physicists, chemists, and mathmeticians ALWAYS agree on everything.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:07 am
” I’m not one with the useful idiots”
useful?
no. not really.
Paulo977
September 13th, 2010
8:10 am
Isom restores my faith in the human capacity to do the right thing!!
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:15 am
“Isom restores my faith in the human capacity to do the right thing!!”
that capacity is always there, it just doesn’t hit the “news” often enough.
barking frog
September 13th, 2010
8:17 am
Amarillo is ‘yellow’ in Spanish. ‘Yellow by morning’ is
not a good song lyric.
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:17 am
Book burning, or the threat of, does provide a distraction from what truly ails us though.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:19 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPaRQ1BYjzU
Gale
September 13th, 2010
8:19 am
In the day of electronic media, does book burning lose its significance?
Happy Monday all.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:19 am
TaxPayer – 8:17 – it’s tried and tested – history has shown us repeatedly
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:19 am
“Book burning, or the threat of, does provide a distraction from what truly ails us though.”
I would argue that it isn’t a “distraction from” what ails us…it is a SYMPTOM of what ails us.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:20 am
Gale – 8:19 –
– I don’t think we’ll be seeing any Kindle burnings anytime soon
Jay
September 13th, 2010
8:20 am
I guess Grisham and his ilk could buy the Koran on their Kindles, then delete it.
Not quite the same though, is it?
Willis
September 13th, 2010
8:20 am
The Rev. Jim Jones, Leader Warren Jeffs, David Koresh – nah, they weren’t extremists – only Mulims are extremist, right?
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:20 am
I would much rather see Palin’s book burned but even then, I think it should be fully utilized through burning it in a furnace so that some useful heat can be extracted from it. Which reminds me, Palin’s e-books have no value.
Gale
September 13th, 2010
8:21 am
Hey Whiner, how do you know the skate boarder is a loser? He could be a professional who likes to skateboard on the weekend for all we know.
Willis
September 13th, 2010
8:21 am
Palins book won’t burn because it is nothing. You can’t burn nothing.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:22 am
Jay – oh, the visual for the media would be priceless – they’ll all be holding up their kindles like Mao’s little red book, then hitting delete simultaneously!
brilliant!
ty webb
September 13th, 2010
8:22 am
ah come on, let’em burn the koran. It’s not like they’re trying to draw a mohammed cartoon.
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:23 am
Is Kindle a derivative of kindling.
RAMBLE ON!!!
September 13th, 2010
8:23 am
Liberals: “free speech for me, but not for thee”.
I’m sure you liberals are looking forward to the next “art” works of the Virgin Mary painted in cow dung.
Bubba Bob
September 13th, 2010
8:24 am
Where were all these people when the ‘Piss Christ’ exhibit was going on? Definitely not defending Christians.
That’s whats so funny about all this. Soak a crucifix in piss and it’s ok. Burn a Koran and you’re intolerant. Somehow it’s not hypocrisy.
Gale
September 13th, 2010
8:25 am
Ah no, deleting files is not as satisfying as burning or shredding or even crumpling something you don’t like. Although, I once had a neat play thing that was connected to a dynamite plunger that would display a flash/smoke screen and make an explosion noise. Kinda fun.
barking frog
September 13th, 2010
8:25 am
The ‘Koran burning’ riots in Afghanistan are basically
a protest against the upcoming election. The protestors
see the election as a sham to continue the US
puppet government of Karzai. Focusing on the
Rev. Jones deflected attention from that. Gates
has not forgotten his CIA training. The hearts and
minds of the Afghans remain unwon.
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:28 am
Where was Bubba Bob when the Crucifix was trickled down on.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:29 am
“Where were all these people when the ‘Piss Christ’ exhibit was going on?” “Virgin Mary painted in cow dung”
I see the talking points have been disseminated
Bubba Bob
September 13th, 2010
8:29 am
Doggone,
Where does the capacity to do “the right thing” come from? What is the definition of “the right thing”?
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:30 am
It is not for us to decide how the Virgin Mary will choose to reveal herself to us.
barking frog
September 13th, 2010
8:31 am
USin UK You certainly wouldn’t want the talking
points inseminated.
Bubba Bob
September 13th, 2010
8:31 am
Taxpayer,
Seriously, do you think the ‘Piss Christ’ exhibit is ok? From your comments I would be you think it’s funny and really gets back at those ‘Christians’.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:31 am
taxpayer – seriously – in recent years, it’s been via a waterstain under an overpass and toast.
Normal
September 13th, 2010
8:31 am
Jessie Jackson in rural Wisconsin…and drew a larger crowd than a Tea Party rally in the same area. It truly is the message and not the messager…
http://www.thenation.com/blog/154646/winning-message-bring-troops-home-bust-banksters-democratize-economy
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:32 am
barking – 8:31 – all’s I can say about THAT is that I wouldn’t want to picture the “inspirational material” they would use for their part of the contribution
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:33 am
“I’m sure you liberals are looking forward to the next “art” works of the Virgin Mary painted in cow dung”
Since no one alive today actually knows what Mary looked like, how can anyone paint her portrait?
Bubba Bob
September 13th, 2010
8:34 am
Doggone,
So that’s your defense? No one knows what she looked like?
No one knows what Muhammed looked like and they are killing people over drawing a cartoon. But that’s ok because they’re Muslims…
TaxPayer
September 13th, 2010
8:35 am
Bubba,
Perhaps the artist of the exhibit you did not protest was only able to get a sewer permit and not a burn permit. Or maybe an exhibit of a burning book has a very high maintenance cost or insurance cost. The possibilities.
Jay
September 13th, 2010
8:35 am
Actually, Bubba, I do NOT think that depicting Christ or other religious figures in such a fashion is OK.
I think it was cheap sensationalism masquerading as art.
Doggone/GA
September 13th, 2010
8:35 am
“Soak a crucifix in piss and it’s ok. Burn a Koran and you’re intolerant.”
Nope, they’re both intolerent…and they are both expressions of the freedom of speech. As are any objections to either one.
USinUK
September 13th, 2010
8:36 am
Bubba – you need to have a sit-down with Scout – he a’splained to us last week that idolatry is against the Christian religion, so the Piss Christ and depicting Madonna in dung is okey-dokey