Koranic Conflagaration.

[J.W. Frogen]

We have all heard about Pastor Terry Jones and his on again off again plan to burn a copy of the Koran on the anniversary of 9-11. An idiotic idea. An idiotic idea protected by the First Amendment. (Idiots need protection too, perhaps most of all.) There has been almost universal condemnation of this plan in the USA, from President Obama, General Petraeus to Sarah Palin. There has been almost a panic to stop this act.

Why?

Let me say I find book burning of any kind offensive (though Dan Brown or Sidney Sheldon would be a close run thing) and I do not advocate it, but I acknowledge the right of those who wish to burn a copy they own of any book as an expression of their speech. Normally, I would simply ignore them. The art of ignoring is an underestimated expression of the civilized mind. But we are forced not to ignore this idiot, why?

Why did a pastor with a church of under 50 people illicit such news coverage and wide spread condemnation? I submit it had little to do with him or his proposed act but rather the nature of Islam.

Burn a Bible and it will hardly make the local news. Create a work of art by pissing on a crucifix and there will not be mass riots or death threats. But if some obscure Christian pastor way down in backwoods Florida threatens to burn a Koran the Islamic world throws itself into an uproar with a very real threat of violence and death as a response.

‘Moderate’ Muslims declare they are gravely offended and that they will not be able to restrain their more violent fellow believers. Once again the “religion of peace” claims simultaneously both a victim and bully status. Islam shouts ‘feel our pain or our more violent members will inflict pain and death, almost randomly, on you.’ And this is no idle threat as many Muslims will kill to silence criticism or offense, as they have proven time and time again from Rushdie to the Danish cartoons. So we give in, condemning and thus highlighting the actions of an obscure idiot pastor because Islam has been effective at imposing both a sense of pity for their theological pain and fear of their very real worldly violent response.

The problem here is not some redneck idiot burning the Koran, the problem here is a religion that is so insecure it sees burning a Koran as a mortal wound. A religion so sure of its grand claims about the cosmos it is willing to kill in response to insult.

It is enough to make a tolerant guy want to burn a Koran.

[freediver]

Thank you Frogen. I couldn't have said it better myself. Though I did try.

Why don't people realise what is at stake here? Does anyone think this problem will go away if we agree not to do the really offensive stuff?

[IQSRLOW]

As I posted elsewhere, the irony of the way you run your other forum escapes you

[Ferombah Hynde]

I was wondering where they would get all of these korans. Presumably, being christfags, they would not own one. So that would mean they would have to go out and buy them. And they would have to buy a shitload of them to produce a decent-sized bonfire. And that would mean handing over a shitload of cash to their enemy. WTF?

[Sappho]

I was wondering where they would get all of these korans. Presumably, being christfags, they would not own one. So that would mean they would have to go out and buy them. And they would have to buy a shitload of them to produce a decent-sized bonfire. And that would mean handing over a shitload of cash to their enemy. WTF?

The book burning was first advertised on facebook and generated a large number of koran donations for the book burning.

@ Frogen,

I thought it would be fun to counter your claims, but even when I play devil's advocate I need for my argument to be genuine and I could find no genuine argument to counter your claims. The only thing I could do was to separate out the book burning from Islam. So there are two issues: the book burning which of itself is a crime against humanity, whether it be a few of one book or many different books and the way in which Islam views itself and its authority which is proving, consistently, to be extreme.

[freediver]

the book burning which of itself is a crime against humanity

How so? You still seem to be confusing this with censorship. Or are you just trying to cheapen the concept of crimes against humanity?

[Ned Kelly]

I'm now trying to define what 'Koran' is. Is it a collection of thoughts and ideas? If those words and ideas were recorded in a rock, does the rock become Koran? If they were on my PC, does my PC become Koran?

[freediver]

That's odd. Aussie has taken a simple concept and made it complicated.

[Ned Kelly]

That's odd. Aussie has taken a simple concept and made it complicated.

Too complicated for you, freediver?

[freediver]

Apparently buring a Koran is the halal way to dispose of it.

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