Tag Archives: Koran burning

Terry Jones burns another Koran

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The pentagon urged him not to and the fire department fined him $271 because he did not have the “required authorization to burn books”.

The big questions are: how much does a permit from the Gainesville Fire Rescue to burn books cost, how many do they issue per year, does the permit include permission to burn Korans and once the fell deed was accomplished did the fire department treat the ashes with the respect they deserve or did they fail to flush them down the toilet? And would they have issued a $271 fine to an atheist burning a Bible?

From here:

About 20 people gathered for the ceremony outside the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., during which Jones demanded the release of Youcef Nadarkhani, an Iranian pastor, currently in jail for apostasy after converting from Islam to Christianity.

Moments after the burning, the Gainesville Fire Rescue issued a citation against the church, claiming it did not have the required authorization to burn books.

The church will be fined $271, including court costs, fire chief Gene Prince told the newspaper.

 

On Koran burning

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Burning Korans is never out of the news for very long. Most recently, rioters in Afghanistan killed 12 people after four Korans were burned by the U.S. military because imprisoned terrorists were using them to exchange clandestine messages. That’s three people per Koran. Before that, Pastor Terry Jones decided to burn a Koran for reasons never satisfactorily explained and we have enjoyed a few Burn the Koran days since then.

The Koran is Islam’s “holy book”. What does that mean? Islam’s claim is that the words of the Koran are Allah’s words: it is holy – sublime and pure – because it contains God’s words. Of course, if it doesn’t contain God’s words, it isn’t holy at all: it is a vile deception which contrives to lead those who read it into confusion and perdition – burning is too good for it. As a Christian, I am inclined to the latter view. There may be a middle ground between these extremes, but I suspect not.

We are frequently enjoined to respect Islam; as a Christian, I feel beholden to respect Muslims since they, like everyone else, are made in God’s image. I can’t see much reason to respect the transparently arrant nonsense that is Islam, though.

So, if Islam is not true and the Koran is not holy, there is no more reason to avoid burning it than to avoid burning the Tropic of Cancer and Muslims really should grow up and stop being so over-sensitive. Many won’t, though and that’s why most people would prefer to stick a firecracker up a bull’s nose than burn a Koran.

Nevertheless, occasionally Korans are burned; why?

Sometimes it is accidental; that was probably the case for the latest conflagration in Afghanistan. Its being an accident didn’t lessen the fury of those who were waiting patiently for an excuse – any excuse – to riot, shoot guns in the air, scream, burn flags and murder people.

Sometimes it is an expression of contempt for Islam. That appears to be the case for both Terry Jones and the Burn the Koran crowd. Since Christians are supposed to draw people to Christ through their words and example, it’s difficult to see why a Christian would view burning the Koran as anything but counter-productive to his primary calling. Even burning the Origin of Species to irritate an atheist, although tempting, is something Christians should avoid. Especially during Lent.

A secularist burning a Koran to demonstrate his contempt for all it represents doesn’t seem to me to be such a bad way to exercise freedom of expression, especially since the pyromaniac would be demonstrating the virtue of bravery (or possibly the vice of stupidity) by doing it in the full knowledge that his days of incendiary exploits were likely to be summarily curtailed by those he seeks to enlighten.

To come back to Afghanistan: the latest incidents have persuaded me that, worthy though the attempt to introduce civilisation to barbarism may be, the West no longer has the stomach to exert the force necessary to bring the effort to fruition. Without that, it’s all a tragic waste.

Obama apologises for Koran burning, Afghans chant "death to Obama"

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That was predictable.

From here:

President Barack Obama has apologised to the Afghan people for the burning of Korans by American troops at a US base.

In a letter to President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama expressed his “deep regret” and said the incident earlier this week was a genuine mistake.

Demonstrations against the desecration have continued for a third day across northern and eastern Afghanistan.

Two foreign soldiers, believed to be Americans, have been killed, along with at least six Afghan people.

[….]

Crowds shouting “death to Obama” have been throwing stones and setting fire to the US flag.

Meanwhile the Taliban has called on Afghans to kill and beat all invading forces in revenge for “insulting” the Koran.

On the principle that one might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, why not get it over with, burn all the Korans, replace them with Bibles, withdraw all the troops, light the blue touchpaper and stand clear.

A 70 day prison sentence for burning a Koran

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Not in Saudi Arabia – in Carlisle!

From here:

A former soldier has been sentenced to 70 days in prison for setting fire to a copy of Muslim holy book the Koran in the centre of Carlisle.

Andrew Ryan had previously admitted religiously aggravated harassment and theft of a Koran from a library.

Ryan was exercising a form of free speech – his version of Fatwa 40378 – a commodity that is evidently in short supply in the politically correct madhouse that has become the UK.

As a Christian, I can’t bring myself to endorse the deliberate desecration of another religion’s paraphernalia – but I’m finding that increasingly difficult to say with conviction.

A police inspector sagely noted:

After sentencing, Insp Paul Marshall, of Cumbria Police, said: “This incident was highly unusual for Cumbria as we have such low levels of hate crime in the county.”

This leads one to speculate on whether Inspector Marshall would recognise a “hate crime” – which surely has to involve someone being injured as opposed to merely offended – if it paraded itself in front of him and took up lodging in his helmet.

If you burn a Koran in the UK, you are arrested

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From here:

A BNP candidate for next month’s Welsh assembly elections has been charged with a public order offence, after police were passed a video appearing to show him burning a copy of the Koran.

Sion Owens, 41, was named as a party candidate for the South Wales West regional list last week.

He is due to appear at Swansea magistrates’ court on Monday.

Let this be a lesson to anyone feeling inclined to do something unpleasant to a religious text: forget about the Koran, rip up a Bible and shove it in your knickers – it will probably earn you taxpayer funding.

The BNP may be an odious organisation, but I can’t think of a better way for the British legal establishment to give it a boost than by arresting one of its members for burning a Koran in his own garage – that is where the conflagration occurred – under the pretext of a Public Order Offence.

The charge has been withdrawn for the moment because of lack of evidence, although “further proceedings will ensue”. And if they do, it will be a sign to that very select group of rabid, head-hacking Muslim nut cases that they are on the right track and should, at the slightest pretext, keep on hacking.

UK: 15 year old girl arrested for burning a Koran

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From here:

A teenager has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred after allegedly burning an English language version of the Koran.

The 15-year-old, who lives in the West Midlands, allegedly posted the video, filmed two weeks ago on her school premises, on Facebook.

The video was reported to the school and subsequently removed, police said.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of making threats. Both have been released on police bail.

It is thought the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was allegedly filmed setting the booklet alight while other pupils watched.

Two Facebook profiles have also been removed from the site, police added.

It is understood that the group who published that version of the Koran have since been to the school to talk to pupils.

This is politically correct idiocy in so many ways.

While burning a Koran may be hazardous to the health of the person doing the burning – just as playing chicken with an oncoming locomotive is – it is an act that will cause offense, not incite “religious hatred”. In fact, if religious hatred is anywhere in evidence in this situation, it is not because it’s been conjured out of nothing by a spot of thoughtless inciting.  The predictable – and routine at this point – reaction to a Koran burning is an existing hatred exposed, not incited.

So the teenager was arrested for offending people. Had she offended Christians by defacing a Bible, she would not have been arrested; no one would have cared. She was arrested because she offended Muslims.

Perhaps she should be applauded for performing a public service: the extremist Muslims in the UK whose hatred she manages to focus so adroitly will be rumbled and could be arrested for real, tangible, dangerous and unencited religious hatred.