Quran burning stopped: reason defeats bigotry (we hope)
Congratulations to Imam Muhammad Musri, of the Islamic Society of Mid Florida, in apparently (we hope) having persuaded the Christian fundamentalist bigot Jones to see reason. The Imam did this whilst defending freedom of speech and the First Amendment: a great and good man!
As regulars will know, Shiraz is a militantly atheist and secular blog: but we can still recognise and salute principled and courageous persons of religion when we (occasionally) encounter them: Imam Musri is an outstanding case in point. If only more religious leaders demonstrated such wisdom, humanity and simple, common decency…
Bigot (left) and man of reason (right).
Laban said,
September 10, 2010 at 7:02 am
I remember well the protests on your blog about this (and the inevitable riots, demonstrations and worldwide killings which followed it).
Mike Killingworth said,
September 10, 2010 at 9:49 am
From the BBC website:
“Fanatics on both sides of the divide would have used it to inflame the cultural war they so desperately want”
…which is the cultural war they will sooner or later get, because they aren’t going to go away and sooner or later they are bound to get under the guard of the rest of us. These are people for whom life in a tolerant, more or less secular society, is sheer torture. Doesn’t every would-be suicide bomber see death as a merciful release from the pain they’re in? Don’t devout Catholics and Muslims both ritually self-harm to please God? “Reason” hasn’t stopped them these past hundreds of years – you got a cunning plan to stop them now?
Oscar Lomax said,
September 10, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Desecration and sacrilege don’t interest me – it means you actually do believe in the power of occultism.
shug said,
September 10, 2010 at 12:48 pm
Oscar,cool to hear socialist mind.
Oscar Lomax said,
September 10, 2010 at 2:01 pm
I have pamphlet commodities for sale also.
They have been stored above three feet of sea-level so are in mint condition. No time wasters please.
Kojack said,
September 10, 2010 at 3:46 pm
I’ll give you a tenner for the lot or 20 quid for the lot – wadda ya saY?
maxdunbar said,
September 10, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Laban
We are a blog, not a news service, and I don’t doubt that every moderator here is opposed to book burning under any circumstance
Has it occurred to you that we could have just missed this story, rather than ‘suppressed’ it
Oscar Lomax said,
September 10, 2010 at 7:01 pm
Dear Kojack the Detective,
I have spent millions on getting a mere handful of pamphlet commodities (boxed — all tied up with a child’s hair ribbon and stored at the aforesaid obligatory height). Your offer is paltry. I would prefer you to be a thief and to steal one, so I may find it again. Your offer is therefore declined, it is binned along with the plums!#$@#$%!!!
Yours,
Oscar
Oscar Lomax said,
September 14, 2010 at 1:17 pm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/10/this-is-how-the-media-wor_n_712229.html
quite a good summary