Poll: International Burn a Koran Day

[ninjajoeman]

Anyone else read burn a korean day? because when I read the heading I was extremely confused.

 

[emeraldrafael]

to start with, no flaming. this a thread which screams "FLAME WAR!!", and im just not interested in that.

so lets keep it simple; a probably slightly slow american priest in the deep south declared september 11th "International Burn a Koran Day" for a reason he changed as media attention grew and grew. chances are you heard about it, as it made the front page on nearly every news outlet of import, exploding a minor issue that noone would have ever cared about it into a international incident that subsequently caused deaths in afghanistan, and riots over the muslim world.

since then the event has been cancelled and the priest has recieved death threats and western politicians every where have condemned it. muslim priests have declared "such a action must not even be considered".

however, muslims frequently burn american flags, american effigies (it was almost ironic to see arabs burning effigies of Obama to protest the burning of a symbol of import) and all sorts of things, is it that much of a outrage for a christian to want to do the same?

now its a simple question, is it wrong to ostracise a christian for burning a important symbol of a religion who routinely burn important symbols of his?

even simpler: did this priest deserve such a backlash? he was doing what muslims have been doing to his flag for the past 20 years.

its different when its religion involved. when you're a priest, you are not a man of any nation, but one of god. This is patiotism v. religion, and its a fight you just cant wage. Its like a knife to a gun fight. yeah, thats not a good excuse, but your "simple" example is a very shitty one.

 

[oktalist]

Agreed. I'm not even American, but the fact that someone thought it might be a good idea to build a mosque on ground zero absolutely fucking disgusts me.

The thought of there being a place for quietly contemplating how to lead a good life within a couple of city blocks of the World Trade Centre site disgusts you (no, wait, fucking disgusts you?)

Most actual New Yorkers agree that it's totally okay. Maybe we should go with what the people who actually live there think.

what's the worst that can happen?!!

Um, holocaust. (You had to ask.)

I don't care what people burn.

Just as long as some people burn, right?

I know that's not what you meant, but it was odd the way you said it.

 

[Nemesis729]

I cant bother myself with these silly religious people lol

 

[Ickorus]

Terrorists make up probably less than 1% of the muslim community, burning their Qu'ran would be be a blanket insult towards their entire community.

It's like meeting an asshole and then declaring that the entire country are assholes based upon your meeting with that one person and then burning their flag because of it.

What im getting at here if you didn't notice the parallel between my second sentence and terrorism is that by desecrating the holy texts of that religion you are basically as misguided as a terrorist.

 

[lacktheknack]

On one hand, I think book-burning is an incredibly insulting and damaging thing, but on the other hand, I think the Muslims have quite some nerve.

Remember, putting a Bible in the toilet was protected as freaking "art". Imagine the shrieking there would be if someone dropped a Koran in the toilet.

 

[lacktheknack]

"They," as you put it, have not burned a Bible. "They" have burned American flags. If you consider your religion to be American, the book of your religion to be the American flag, then it is surely no greater than tit for tat to burn the Qu'ran.

Oh they've burned Bibles. They've burned Bibles, churches, and Christians.

 

[magnuslion]

I take the stance here I do with comedy: It's either all ok, or none of it is. If they can burn our flags and declare "death to Americans" we can burn their book. If people in America can mock Jesus and Buddha, we can mock Mohamed as well. If they do not like that: TOUGH SHIT. This is our country and we will be the ones to set policy for it.

 

[Agayek]

Assuming burning Quran = Burning flag, then he's giving extremists AND those Islamics who aren't involved the go ahead to join in.

And yes, he's free to be ignorant, I'm free to complain and that's what I've been doing, what was your point?

He's not giving anyone the go ahead. He's saying "Fuck you Islam!". That doesn't give anyone the go ahead to do anything. If they were dumb enough to be inspired to strike back at him because of it, they would've been convinced by something else as soon as they were needed. All he's doing is making a statement, he has no control over how people respond to it, and so holding him accountable for it is kinda ridiculous.

My point is mostly that the outrage over it is kinda ludicrous. It strikes me as a ridiculous amount of effort and time wasted to care about the guy and whatever it is he wants to do.

 

[Agayek]

Oh they've burned Bibles. They've burned Bibles, churches, and Christians.

To be fair, Christians as a whole have probably done more damage to the Islamic world/Middle East than any other single group of people in history. That certainly doesn't excuse terrorism, but it is true.

 

[Agayek]

Okay, 6 pages of what is most likely bickering(Okay I shouldn't make such an assumption and I am sorry for it). Can I ask something? Why is burning a book so bad, especially if it is your own property?

Because a lot of people are rather self-centered and simply can't grasp the concept that they do not have the right to not be offended.

Also, because for some utterly arbitrary and ridiculous reason, it is apparently the penultimate sin to burn a holy text, regardless of whether or not you believe anything in it.

The whole debate is completely ridiculous. Anyone that's offended by it needs to get their priorities straight.

Edit: Damn. Apologies for the triple post.

 

[oktalist]

Being offended by it is probably the single worst response you can possibly have.

I'm not offended, nor am I worried about other people being offended. I just recognise that people who burn Korans usually have a fascistic hatred of Muslims and would like to have them all killed, and I am against that.

 

[4484448444844484]

So we should burn their stuff because they burn ours? That's the excuse a three year old would make.

 

[Agayek]

I'm not offended, nor am I worried about other people being offended. I just recognise that people who burn Korans usually have a fascistic hatred of Muslims and would like to have them all killed, and I am against that.

For sure, but at least in this case he's not advocating the wholesale slaughter of Ay-rabs. I am 100% behind you if someone ever comes up with "International Punch a Muslim" day or whatever, but when all he's doing is burning a book he owns, it's a bit ridiculous to care about it.

 

[imaloony]

Yes, but not because burning a Korean is wrong, but because burning a human bloody being is wrong. Can't people just agree that burning others is not okay? Can't we all just put down the pitchforks and torches and take a moment to think about this crap for a moment?

 

[Kaymish]

i didnt pay much attention people with different religions will always be at each others throats and will kill each other given any half baked reason its just what religions are they are mechanisms of control and of murder of people the priests don't control this was just another example of the evil that all religions create and spread

 

[lacktheknack]

Oh they've burned Bibles. They've burned Bibles, churches, and Christians.

To be fair, Christians as a whole have probably done more damage to the Islamic world/Middle East than any other single group of people in history. That certainly doesn't excuse terrorism, but it is true.

Well, if it doesn't excuse terrorism or persecution, then it's irrelevant to my comment.

 

[The Man With the Soap]

Under Muslim law, Muslims are forbidden to burn the Koran, and Muslims are forbidden to create an image of Muhammad. Non-Muslims are not covered by Muslim law, and therefore, mad do as they please. I know it is insesitive, but under the First-Amendment, Americans are allowed to do such things. This does not make burning the Koran or the Bible a particularly bright idea, but everyone is allowed to do as they please.

 

[Agayek]

Well, if it doesn't excuse terrorism or persecution, then it's irrelevant to my comment.

Well no, it's not an excuse for terrorism, but it is one of several reasons the Islamic world as a whole has so many problems with the West.

My point was more that you can't really use the fact that they've burned X, Y, or Z to support burning their equivalent, simply because if you're playing tit for tat then it's already more or less equal.

 

[CarbonEagle]

I thought it would have been ironic and served everybody involved right if they bombed the priest while he was holding a kuran and incinerated the book.

But burning books is stupid. Your depriving the world of knowledge.