Quran burning minister pretends to feel shock that his actions resulted in deaths at the hands of Islamic extremists.

From the Daily Beast:

Now Terry Jones is shedding crocodile tears, saying he is "devastated" by the violence, but it was entirely predictable. At the time of the book-burning, he also played sober and solemn, saying: “It is not that we burn the Koran with some type of vindictive motive… We do not even burn it with great pleasure or any pleasure at all. We burn it because we feel a deep obligation to stay with the court system of America. The court system of America does not allow convicted criminals to go free. And that is why we feel obligated to do this.”

This bit of self-delusion deserves extra scrutiny because it captures a strain of extremism we’ve been increasingly seeing: radical action as a reluctant obligation, an expression of fidelity to deeper principles. The fact that Jones is invoking the courts—when his show-trial stunt took place in a near-empty church and the "convicted criminal" is a book—is one sign of the psychosis at work. Bad craziness takes great pains to present itself as misunderstood patriotism these days. Playing the victim card will not be far behind.

But it is a sign of our times that the reverberations of Terry Jones’ brand of crazy can reach across the world and translate to real violence. It is a reason why extremists’ statements cannot be simply ignored in the hopes that they will go away on their own accord.

The fact that Jones’ greatest enablers in terms of getting his message out included the Taliban is also illuminating—extremists encourage each other, they fuel the cycle of incitement and serve as powerful recruiting tools. Islamist radicals want their followers to believe that Jones’ actions are indicative of all Americans, and the Terry Joneses of the world see the murders as evidence of Islam’s inherent violence—hate, ignorance and intolerance begets more of the same. Good people of all faiths and nationalities can get caught in the crossfire between the extremes.

Terry Jones and the Taliban, two extremists sides of the same superstitious coin.

I don't know who is more pathetic.  Jones for expecting us to believe he really had no idea how this might turn out, or the Muslims who jumped through the hoop that he held up for them half a world away.

For those who have been upset with my criticisms of religion, my question in this case is how could I not?

Jones is a member of an Apostolic church that believes war in the Middle East is absolutely necessary to usher in the second coming of Christ, which ALL people of his faith desperately wish to happen during their lifetimes.  On the other hand the Muslim extremists believe that the burning of their holy book proves that Christians are conducting a holy war against them and feel they are justified in taking lives in response.

Both of these very extreme positions are, the protagonists feel, supported by the teachings of their religious faith.  So how can any rational person looking at it from the outside NOT conclude that the fault lies with religion in general, and religious fundamentalism specifically?

Let's face it if religion were taken out of the equation, Terry Jones would have been unable to agitate these Afghans, nor would he have felt compelled to do so.

If I am missing some larger point, please educate me.