Todays Editorial from The Gainesville Times...

A suspicious fire breaks out at a construction site in a town in Tennessee. A taxi driver is attacked in New York City.

Is there a connection? Almost certainly.

The fire in Murfreesboro, Tenn., occurred at the site of a future mosque that has already been visited by acts of vandalism.

And the slashing of a Muslim taxi driver by an emotionally troubled man occurred in a city that has been riven by dissension over a proposed Islamic center not far from ground zero.

Both incidents remind us that the line between angry words and violent deeds can be thin and tenuous. Gainesville residents who await the approach of Sept. 11 with a mixture of anxiety and dread can only hope that the thin line won't be crossed in this community.

On that day, members of the Dove World Outreach Center plan to burn copies of the Quran; a symbolic act of religious bigotry that has already drawn worldwide attention to Gainesville.

Gainesville is a city that celebrates diversity and tolerance of others' beliefs. But the thin line between hateful acts of symbolism and violence could snap just as easily here as elsewhere.

Once again we call upon members of the Dove World Outreach Center to abandon this misbegotten exercise.

Yes, it can happen here.