Book-burning Church Getting Too Much Press
Some narrow-minded church leaders and/or members have decided to have a good old-fashioned book-burning, except this time they're burning the Qur'an. A rinky 50-member church has been filling the news feeds on my Google-driven home-page, and the notice even tripped into the nerdy world when their web host cut off their service, and that made the news.
Now, I'm not for insulting anyone, so apologies if you get insulted.
From what I've gathered from the first-paragraph displays on my news feed, the church in question is burning the Qur'an in some attempt to protest something (I don't even really care) having to do with Islam. Maybe they hold all of Islam responsible for terrorism or specific acts of terrorism, as many other misguided individuals do. Maybe it's related to the also-in-the-news mosque that is being erected near the WTC site in New York, which really has its basis of concern in the same misguided prejudice.
I have just a few short thoughts on the subject.
First, a thought for those who are against the book burning: let them stupidly burn the books. I understand it's a sacred tome to some, and I respect that, but ultimately, it's just paper and ink in the hands of these infidels; they're not getting the message contained within anyway.
As far as I know, it isn't like they've raided homes and stolen the books they're burning, but instead have had to find or purchase the books (which while momentarily depleting a supply, is doing a little bit for local sacred book economy).
Turn the other cheek (as another sacred tome recommends...or was that just one of Aesop's fables?), and just inwardly chuckle as these book-burning idiots are illuminated by the glow of the burning message, and are showered in the ash of the recitation.
Remember that they don't have all of them, they won't get all of them, and what few (what, dozens, hundreds, thousands?) they might be able to burn can (and most certainly will) be replaced.
The last thought I have is for the church and others who think this is the right thing to do: consider that the individuals you're upset with aren't all of the students of Islam, but just some of them. I think the best quote related to this came from TV's West Wing. It went something like this:
Jihad is to Islam as KKK is to Christianity.
It isn't the religion that is to blame. It's the interpretation and execution of those interpretations by a select group (or select groups) that is disagreeable.
Sure, there's some wonky things that we hear about in the book. Here's an idea, though, try reading it. I've given it a little bit of a go. It's not quite the page-turner of poetry, life-lessons, and stories that the Bible is (for example, a big section seems to deal with what we'd now call probate...), but it isn't filled with the hatred and disgust that the book-burning intolerants are exhibiting.
Please, just let them finally fade away from the news cycle so we can get on with ignoring other, more pressing news.