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Monday, July 26, 2010

This Should Take the Heat Off Molly Norris

Posted by on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 at 10:55 AM

An evangelical pastor in Florida launches "International Burn a Koran Day," which leads to this shocker of a headline:

Muslims oppose Florida church’s “Burn a Koran Day”

No one could've predicted. There's already a Facebook page. (If you're a Facebook user in Pakistan, get your status update posted now.) This should end well.

 

Comments (32) RSS

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Chris in Vancouver WA 1
Why discriminate? Let's have "Burn a Sacred Text Day"! Bibles, Books of Mormons (?), Bhagivads Gitas, Scientology courses, all of 'em, into the flames!!
Posted by Chris in Vancouver WA on July 26, 2010 at 11:00 AM
michaelp 2
HA! I first read that as "Burn a Korean Day", and about shit myself
Posted by michaelp on July 26, 2010 at 11:04 AM
3
Upon a first read of this, I thought it said 'Burn a Korean Day', and wondered why, beyond the affront to all that is holy and human, would Muslims oppose burning Koreans in only Florida, and not the rest of the country.
Posted by PDX_Paulie on July 26, 2010 at 11:04 AM
4
@2, you're not alone, and beat me to it!
Posted by PDX_Paulie on July 26, 2010 at 11:06 AM
Chris in Vancouver WA 5
Those Korean Muslims are ruining this country with their kimchee and their hummus!!
Posted by Chris in Vancouver WA on July 26, 2010 at 11:09 AM
slake 6
I thought it said to Burn Korn and I never really liked the band so I was kinda alright with it.
Posted by slake on July 26, 2010 at 11:23 AM
Will in Seattle 7
You should never burn the Koran.

That's not good for the environment.

Compost it instead.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on July 26, 2010 at 11:26 AM
bleedingheartlibertarian 8
Religious fanatics baiting other religious fanatics. Can't we get them all on one continent (ideally Antarctica) and let them hash it out among themselves?

Much as I despise the type of Islamic extremism that is so in love with death and so immune to irony that they put hits out on cartoonists, the correct response to book burners is *never* to burn their books. To paraphrase Einstein, you cannot simultaneously defend free speech while crushing it.
Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian on July 26, 2010 at 11:34 AM
Vince 9
I can't get excited when religions turn their need to hate against each other.
Posted by Vince on July 26, 2010 at 11:43 AM
thatsnotright 10
"The gingham dog and the calico cat..."
Posted by thatsnotright on July 26, 2010 at 11:50 AM
balderdash 11
@1, I was thinking the same thing, except that I'm too damn classy to burn books like a knuckledragging Florida jackass.

Although... I might find it in my heart to shred a bible and a koran, make papier-mache out of them, and sculpt a large penis from it.
Posted by balderdash http://introverse.blogspot.com on July 26, 2010 at 11:55 AM
12
@5 mmmmm, kimchee hummus!
Posted by jeccat on July 26, 2010 at 12:10 PM
13
I highly recommend reading the first comment from the linked post: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/feature…
Posted by aaronbrethorst http://www.viainstapaper.com on July 26, 2010 at 12:13 PM
Delishuss 14
Yalls, I know that not many regular Sloggers are particularly religious, but we all recognize this for an act of hate, right? They're going to burn a Koran on 9/11.

Facebook protest page.
Posted by Delishuss on July 26, 2010 at 12:39 PM
15
The Quran is a book. Islam is an idea. It is perfectly safe and harmless to attack ideas.

In Denmark we've made a porn-movie about the second coming of Christ (come on... the second COMING - it is to obvious to give it a pass), Life of Brian gets shown on national TV every Easter and Christianity is routinely mocked in the media. ...and guess what? No Christians are harmed by that.

The Quran is just a book. You can burn any Quran you want to, as long as you don't burn every Quran. Muslims need to learn that gross disrespect is part and parcel of the religious experience in a secular society.

B.t.w.

http://bohemianrhapsody.dk/english/
Posted by WilliamJansen on July 26, 2010 at 1:12 PM
Cato the Younger Younger 16
Come on Dan, of course this will end well!! Islam is a religion of peace!! Remember?? LOL!!!! HA HA HA HA HA!!!

Oh man, someone's gonna lose their head over that!!
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on July 26, 2010 at 1:45 PM
giffy 17
I prefer more creative statements than destructive ones so I loved everybody draw Mohammed day, but burning books is just kind of lame.

How about everybody make Qurogami day!
Posted by giffy on July 26, 2010 at 2:34 PM
venomlash 18
In other news, ignorant bible-thumpers still don't like "Ay-rabs"...
Posted by venomlash on July 26, 2010 at 2:37 PM
bleedingheartlibertarian 19
@15--Absolutely, and upon reflection on my earlier comment it occurs to me that burning the Koran is also itself a form of free expression that should be protected. I never intended that burning the Koran shouldn't be allowed, just that I would prefer criticism of Islam not take that form , because I'm against burning books generally for historical reasons that I"m sure I don't need to elaborate on.
Posted by bleedingheartlibertarian on July 26, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Delishuss 20
@15 This isn't Denmark, and we haven't made a porn here about the second coming. And I really wouldn't say that reruns of Life of Brian would be on the same level of free expression as burning the Bible.

A protest against this is a matter of tact and tolerance, not free expression. The church members, on their Facebook page, are claiming that they're doing this to free Muslims from Islam because it's an institution of the Devil. They are, pardon the pun, being deliberately inflammatory. We need better relations in this country with Muslims and the Middle East, and a bunch of Quran-burning bible-thumpers aren't helping anyone. Nor is the self-righteous smugness from the non-religious.
Posted by Delishuss on July 26, 2010 at 3:16 PM
21
It starts with burning books and ends with burning people...

Posted by tazzo on July 26, 2010 at 3:20 PM
22
I really think it is important to distinguish between burning copies of a book, and burning copies of the book while simultaneously banning said book.

This is an act of protest, and has nothing do with censorship or the nazi-variant of book-burnings.

As for the "It starts with burning books and ends with burning people..."-comment; do you find this also holds true of burning flags (which I'm obviously also cool with), or is it strictly book-burnings that lead to people-burnings? Just curious.
Posted by WilliamJansen on July 26, 2010 at 10:10 PM
Canuck 23
@20 "Nor is the self-righteous smugness from the non-religious."
@15 Has a valid point, and I don't think he's being smug or self-righteous: You won't get thrown in jail or murdered for burning a bible, but those could be entirely possible outcomes if you burned a Quran. Muslims need to chill out and stop threatening journalists and everyone else who dares make fun of their prophet.

I wish the US were more like Denmark, to be honest. We could learn a lot from the Scandinavian countries (Canada included.)
Posted by Canuck on July 26, 2010 at 10:15 PM
24
@22, it was an emotional comment on my part and I don't think it is necessarily true. I think flag burnings tend to be an act of protest against the state whereas burning Korans seem to be explicitly targeting what, I believe anyway, are a vulnerable minority within the US. That's not to say that I think burning books/flags/ whatever should be outlawed. I do think free speech and protest is always legal. Doesn't mean that I approve of this particular form of free-speech.... I shake my head at it but I want it to stay legal.

Posted by tazzo on July 27, 2010 at 8:02 AM
25
@22, it was an emotional comment on my part and I don't think it is necessarily true. I think flag burnings tend to be an act of protest against the state whereas burning Korans seem to be explicitly targeting what, I believe anyway, are a vulnerable minority within the US. That's not to say that I think burning books/flags/ whatever should be outlawed. I do think free speech and protest is always legal. Doesn't mean that I approve of this particular form of free-speech.... I shake my head at it but I want it to stay legal.

Posted by tazzo on July 27, 2010 at 8:07 AM
26
i also thought it said "burn a korean day" yikes!
Posted by new york state of mind on July 27, 2010 at 9:06 AM
27
i also thought it said "burn a korean day" yikes!
Posted by new york state of mind on July 27, 2010 at 10:33 AM
28
shit, sorry for the double post
Posted by new york state of mind on July 27, 2010 at 10:38 AM
long-time reader 29
Crusade vs. Jihad: The First-Person-Shooter.

Would some of you game geeks get on this, plz?

There could even be a third team, Praise Science!
Posted by long-time reader on July 27, 2010 at 6:38 PM
Delishuss 30
@23 The "self-righteous smugness" comment was aimed more at the people saying things like, "Hey, let's burn all the holy books, not just the Quran!" Burning the Quran, even as a protest and an act of free expression, is still a sign of deep disrespect for Islam. Burning the Bible would be just as disrespectful to Christians. Part of being tolerant is being respectful of people's values, and many people's values are defined by the words of the holy books that are the basis of their religions.

I absolutely agree that Muslims need to chill. But "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" is on a different level than "International Burn A Koran Day." The latter is along the same lines as the Gitmo guards that made Muslim prisoners clean the toilets with the pages of the Quran.
Posted by Delishuss on July 28, 2010 at 12:16 PM
Misha Vargas 31
@30

Delishuss, I bet we could go out and find a Muslim who would oppose Everybody Draw Mohammed Day, but wouldn't give a toss what you do with your own copy of the Qur'an. Taboos aren't the same for everyone.

And anyways, we shouldn't be respectful of everyone's values; people value all sorts of things we should condemn, hate, oppose with every fibre of our being. Just think about it. If they claim that they actually get their values (like homophobia!) from an old unchanging magic book from God...well, it doesn't help their case.

You can go ahead and tolerate the intolerable, but I'm going to keep judging people by the content of their character.
Posted by Misha Vargas http://www.youtube.com/MishaVargas on July 29, 2010 at 1:21 AM
32
Unfortunately it did not take the heat off Molly Norris. She had to go into hiding this week.

Another nail in the coffin for freedom of speech
Posted by Carlo Broglia on September 21, 2010 at 12:00 PM

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