( CNN ) -- There is little argument that America 's respect in the Muslim world has lessened as we enter our 10th year of war against a deadly shadow enemy of religious extremists who wear no uniform , wave no flag and who use their holy book as sword and shield against fellow Muslims as well as all things American . So what does Terry Jones , pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville , Florida , hope to accomplish by calling for a `` Burn a Quran Day '' this Saturday , September 11 , the ninth anniversary of the worst sneak attack on American soil in our 234-year history ? The answers are as obvious as they are ominous : He will bring total contempt from the world 's fastest-growing religion against the world 's oldest democracy . He will destroy the goodwill generations of Americans have worked to create in almost every nation . He will -- in just a few seconds of self-proclaimed glory and protest -- paint a target on the backs of U.S. troops , diplomats , foreign service employees , humanitarian relief workers and American tourists . Worse , still , Jones and his followers will provide our enemies with a propaganda tool that will outlast our lives and those of our children and their children . Burning a Quran will instantly undo everything good that America has done in the world . America 's top general in Afghanistan , David H. Petraeus , recognizes the consequences of such an act . `` Images of the burning of a Quran would undoubtedly be used by extremists in Afghanistan -- and around the world -- to inflame public opinion and incite violence , '' he said in a statement released from his headquarters in Kabul . No one will remember when a half-dozen Muslim nations joined a multinational coalition that included the U.S. to free Kuwait back in 1991 . No one will remember America 's huge humanitarian response in Indonesia after the devastating 2004 tsunami or in Pakistan after this year 's disastrous flooding . No one will remember countless other projects to build schools and roadways and efforts to bring clean drinking water to people . No one outside the United States will recognize or even care that burning a Quran was the act of a single or small group of individuals . The only thing the Muslim world will remember and our enemies will exploit is that the U.S. government allowed Americans to burn the Islamic holy book in protest without consequence . The First Amendment may protect the pastor 's right to protest , but nothing is to be gained and everything is to lose from this self-serving act . Our nation was founded on religious freedom and tolerance , yet a man of the cloth wants to invoke memories of a not-so-proud history when a developing America did n't want Catholics or Jews but did want slaves . If the good pastor wants to protest something on the side of the righteous , I would suggest he divert his energies against the Rev . Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka , Kansas . For the better part of this decade , Phelps and his followers have been protesting around the country at the funerals of fallen military members , carrying signs that say `` Thank God for Dead Soldiers . '' He is now the subject of a First Amendment case scheduled before the U.S. Supreme Court next month . [ Snyder v. Phelps ] . Religion has been the rallying cry of almost every war in recorded history , and there are those in our country as well as in Muslim countries who truly believe that this is the start of a war between Islam and nonbelievers . `` America is not at war with Islam '' is a statement that has been repeated publicly and repeated often by presidents and members of Congress from all political persuasions , not because it is politically correct but because it is true . America is at war , however , against a small number of religious extremists who hide behind women and children and kill indiscriminately without remorse . We must not allow an equally small number of religious extremists in America to widen the war by burning the Quran ... or Torah or Bible . America is far better than that . The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Richard L. Eubank .
Richard Eubank : Pastor 's plan to burn Qurans on 9-11 endangers U.S. soldiers , tourists , diplomats . It will undo all goodwill America has built up , Eubank argues , for generations to come . Dangerous extremists will exploit the act planned by U.S. religious extremists , he says . Score: 6