Sunday, April 03, 2011

A Mandate to Protect the Holy Book

Burning Koran, Dove World Outreach Center

Consider the following news story:

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese protests against the burning of a Bible in Indonesia entered a third day with demonstrations in the east on Sunday, while the Patriarch of Lisbon called on people to rise up, blaming government forces for any violence.

The desecration at a small Indonesian mosque has outraged Christians worldwide, and in Portugal many of the demonstrations have turned into deadly riots. Protests in the north and south in recent days have killed 20 people.

The protest in Lisbon was peaceful, with hundreds of people blocking a main highway for three hours, burning an effigy of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before dispersing, according to an Associated Press photographer at the scene.

A similar protest in eastern Beja blocked a main highway with burning tires for about an hour, with more than 1,000 people protesting against the desecration of the Bible, said provincial police chief Hernando Teixeira. He said there was no violence.

The Patriarch of Lisbon said in a statement e-mailed to media outlets that Indonesia and other Muslim countries have wrongly excused the burning of a Bible by the imam of a Indonesian mosque on March 20 as freedom of speech and that the Portuguese “cannot accept this un-Christian act.”

If I had run the above pastiche on April Fools’ Day, nobody would have been fooled for a second. “Come on Baron!” the comments would have said. “Give us something that looks credible, for crying out loud!”

Funny about that. All I had to do was exchange the relevant proper nouns in an article from USA Today to obtain the spoof text above.

There’s never more than a hair’s breadth between the absurd and the obscene where Islam is involved.

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The outrage in Afghanistan over the burning of a Koran shows no sign of abating. According to MSNBC:

At least 10 people have been killed and 83 injured in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, officials said on Saturday, on a second day of violent protests over the actions of extremist Christian preacher Terry Jones, who supervised the burning of the Quran in front of about 50 people at a church in Florida on March 20, according to his website.

A suicide attack also hit a NATO military base in the capital Kabul, the day after protesters overran a U.N. mission in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif and killed seven foreign staff in the deadliest attack on the U.N. in Afghanistan.

[…]

The recent burning initially passed relatively unnoticed in Afghanistan, but after criticism from President Hamid Karzai and calls for justice during Friday sermons, thousands poured into the streets in several cities to denounce Jones.

Trouble always starts in the mosques during Friday prayers, when the imams exhort the faithful to righteous anger on behalf of the faith, and then send them out into the streets to do their duty to Allah. Under sharia, this sort of behavior is not only legal, it is mandatory — provided that Islam has been insulted.

And from an AFP report:

Ten people died amid fresh protests that began in the center of the main southern city of Kandahar and spread as police clashed with crowds on Saturday, a day after seven UN staff were killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the worst attack on the world body in the country since the 2001 invasion.

[…]

Kandahar is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban, who have fought an insurgency against President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies since they were ousted by the US-led invasion.

“Death to America” and “Death to Karzai” chanted the demonstrators. “They have insulted our Koran,” shouted one.

So Hamid Karzai is in the crosshairs of the mujahideen, too — no wonder he wants Terry Jones locked up.

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Back in 2006, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Secretary General of the OIC, had this to say [pdf] about the Danish Mohammed Cartoon Crisis:

The angry reaction in the Muslim world… is mainly due to the premeditated and deliberate attack on the revered person of the prophet, whose holy position, message and teachings were maliciously and calculatingly sacrileged by the so called defenders of freedom.

The same standard is being applied today to the burning of a copy of the Koran at the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida. The actions of Terry Jones and his associates constitute the most grievous of sacrilege under sharia, and must be punished by death.

When Afghan President Hamid Karzai insisted that the desecrators of the Koran be “brought to justice”, he obviously meant “justice” as defined by Islamic law, and not by the United States Constitution. In other words, he is calling on President Barack Hussein Obama to uphold sharia law in a non-Muslim country.

At this point it’s hard to say to what extent Mr. Obama will oblige him. The signs are not auspicious, however — the most urgent official preoccupation of the United Nations and the U.S. government during the crisis is to somehow appease the anger of Muslims who are outraged by the burning of the Koran, and not to condemn the atrocities which were committed in response:

[UN envoy Staffan] de Mistura spoke in a somber tone as he described how three U.N. staff members and four Nepalese guards were killed Friday when the protesters stormed their compound in the normally peaceful city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He placed direct blame on those who burned the copy of the Muslim holy book in Florida.

“The demonstration was meant to protest against the insane and totally despicable gesture by one person who burned the holy Quran,” he said.

Notice that Mr. De Mistura spoke reverentially of “the holy Quran”, as if he were a Muslim himself. What’s more, the beheading of innocent victims is not described as “insane and totally despicable” — that description is reserved for the burning of a book.

However, that’s just the United Nations — and we all know how they are. How about the U.S. Military?

Below is the joint statement released by Gen. David Petraeus and the NATO command in Afghanistan:
Statement by ISAF Commander Gen. David Petraeus and NATO SCR Ambassador Mark Sedwill

International Security Assistance Force
ISAF Headquarters Public Affairs

KABUL, Afghanistan (April 3, 2011)
— In view of the events of recent days, we feel it is important on behalf of ISAF and NATO members in Afghanistan to reiterate our condemnation of any disrespect to the Holy Qur’an and the Muslim faith. We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Qur’an.

We also offer condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Qur’an.

We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Qur’an, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people. [italics added]

As you can see, Gen. Petraeus also identifies the Koran as a holy book — just as if it were his own venerated scripture. Heck, for all I know, it might be.

Also notice that those individuals who burned the Koran are accounted culpable, and considered responsible for their actions, while the bombers and murderers and beheaders are like a natural disaster that “occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Qur’an”.

If this is the response of our brave men in uniform, you can imagine what their Commander-in-Chief is saying. Here’s the full text of a statement released yesterday by Barack Hussein Obama:

Today, the American people honor those who were lost in the attack on the United Nations in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan.

Once again, we extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were killed, and to the people of the nations that they came from.

The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity.

No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act.

Now is a time to draw upon the common humanity that we share, and that was so exemplified by the UN workers who lost their lives trying to help the people of Afghanistan. [italics added]

Once again, we are called to “honor those who were lost in the attack”, as if it were a tsunami or a forest fire. And the reference is to “those who were killed”, using the passive voice — no agentive is involved.

Mr. Obama, like the generals and the UN envoy, considers the Koran to be a “holy text”. If I didn’t know him to be a Christian, I would assume the president was speaking as a Muslim himself. And if that were the case, the statement “No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people” would be an instance of kitman, deliberate misdirection — under sharia, non-Muslims cannot be innocent. They are all kuffar, who are by definition guilty. Killing non-believers is not always mandatory, but a Muslim who does so cannot be punished under Islamic law except under certain narrowly-defined circumstances.

What all these official pronouncements have in common is that they grant no agency to the Muslims who commit violent atrocities. The murderers of Kandahar and Mazar-i-Sharif are not responsible for their behavior.

But Terry Jones is responsible for what he does. He is judged culpable for his “desecration”. The violence that follows is like the wind and the rain — it just happens. It’s tragic but inevitable, once the flames rise up from the pages of the book. There’s nothing that can be done about it.

We expect that brand of nonsense from Muslims — their watchword is inshallah, after all. But to hear it from our own political and military leaders is appalling.

They have evidently absorbed the core principles of PC MC, in which only white people are held to be responsible for their actions. Since all Muslims are automatically “brown” people, they cannot possibly be responsible. So it’s all the white man’s fault — in this case, the fault of a handful of white men in Gainesville, Florida.

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There’s no getting away from it: the United Nations, the President of the United States, and the U.S. military are overtly supporting sharia law. If the president were to find a relevant federal statute and have the FBI arrest the “desecrators”, he would be enforcing sharia law.

Such an action seems unlikely at this point — and would have been unimaginable before January 20, 2009 — but it can’t be ruled out. Mr. Obama is a knee-jerk appeaser of Muslims, and the “Muslim street” is demanding that the Koran-burners be punished. This is a huge opportunity for appeasement, one that he would surely hate to miss.

If there is even the flimsiest of pretexts under which Terry Jones and his co-pastor could be indicted in federal court, it’s bound to happen. The law — Islamic law — demands it.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

When people have this kind of irrational, narcissistic sensitivity, the worst thing you can possibly do is give in to it.

The correct course of action is to challenge it at every opportunity until the narcissists realise they're not going to be indulged.

We should burn a Koran every day. Someone should set up a website that shows a Koran being burnt in a different part of the civilised world each single day.

Once it's been done enough times, the savages will get used to it, mature morally and eventually even regard it as funny. The best way we can help these people is by offending them over and over and over again.

Anonymous said...

From absurd to suicidally insane . . .
Politico: [RSC Sen. Lindsey] Graham: Explore limits on Quran burnings

Kindly insert long abusive string of profanity here.

acuara said...

which is why, as a Christian, I amj grateful to NOT be of this world. As for The WORD of God, He will be returning for me an my wife and family, adn after we celebrate the Marriage Supper of tthe Lamd, returning to straighten out this mess called planet Earth. I look forward to that day with longing whilst I occupy in His name. As for Islam taking over the world, will they ever have a rude awakening when God (Ya) steps in to protect His Chosen people, the Jews. (cf. Ez. Ch. 36-39). If that weren't enough, just wait until Jesus returns through the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem after landing on the Mount of Olives after having marched through Edom and Moab. I do wish, and pray for the eyes of the Dar 'al Sa'laam to be opened.
Steven Davis

Blogger said...

I was thinking the same thing Cheradanine. In fact, in psychology there is a technique called "flooding":

Flooding is a psychotherapeutic method for overcoming phobias. This is a faster yet less efficient and more traumatic method of ridding fears such as of systematic desensitization. In order to demonstrate the irrationality of the fear a psychologist would put a person in a situation where they would face their phobia at its worst.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flooding_(psychology)

Unfortunately, only being exposed to the "phobia" (ie Koran burning) once or twice, can actually "increase" the phobic reaction. So, the best thing we can do for the world right now is to "flood" it with Koran burning!

Zenster said...

As a dedicated bibliophile, I really dislike the idea of book burning. Islam continues to push every imaginable limit of decency, respect and honor to the point where Muslims needs to see people around the world burning the Qur'an on a daily basis until the message finally gets through:

WE WILL NOT SHOW ANY RESPECT FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SUMMON UP ENOUGH DIGNITY TO BEHAVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS.

Pastor Terry Jones is right in doing this. Bibles are destroyed throughout the Islamic world on a daily basis without so much as a peep. It's time for whiney-arsed Muslims to suck it up and quit being such babies.

I wonder how long it will take this world's Muslim population to realize that the logical extension of their collective behavior is for all non-Islamic countries to simply glass over every the entire Islamic world and simply be done with any further nuisance.

Eventually, everyone will sicken of terrorism and shari'a until the one simple and cost-effective measure becomes obvious. Islam literally leaves the world no other option.

It is sickeningly pathetic.

Blogger said...

Obama: "No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people"

Note the word "innocent" in this sentence?

Obama's sentence is therefore correct. BUT ... "innocent" has a completely different meaning in Islam than how we non-muslims understand it.

2:191 fitna (sin) is worse than committing murder

Profitsbeard said...

How about a fabric-covered book-sized block of foam rubber made to resemble a "Koran".

But used as a pin cushion cum voodoo doll.

You could utilize it for years, and not just once like a burned Koran.

Plunge a pearl-headed pin into it and say the incantation:

"May Islam end and sanity begin for Muslims everywhere, amen."

Equally disrepectful of this deathcult playbook, but less messy and longer-lasting in effect.

SNAKE HUNTERS said...

A self serving, pin-headed preacher in Florida burns a book, and people die.

a) Anyone with a lick of common sense reads the Holy Qur'an..it's a "how to" manual of mutilation, rape & slaughter..of all "non-believers", then find excerpts of the most hideous passages, photo-copy them, and hand-deliver them to friends.

b) Keep a copy near your computer;
very handy when you eMail a letter or note to your aware people!

Allah's Apostle said, "I have become victorious with terror."
Bukhari, Vol 4, Book 52, #220

More...

www.thereligionofpeace.com/

reb
___ ___

Lawrence said...

That's okay.

Soon well have some type of intellectual argument attacking the burning of Korans while defending the burning of Bibles.

Somehow, trying to implement Western solutions on Islamic problems is supposed to work...

Maybe we need to look at the problem from the Islamists point of view, then implement a solution that works in the way "they" think about the problem.

Because implementing solutions in the way "we" in the West think about the problem isn't working.

Peace through strength is what they know and respect. Everything else is folly in their eyes and cause for them to continue fighting their fight against us.

Zenster said...

Lawrence: Somehow, trying to implement Western solutions on Islamic problems is supposed to work...

Sez who? When has it ever?

Maybe we need to look at the problem from the Islamists point of view, then implement a solution that works in the way "they" think about the problem.

Le bingo.

Islam always always, always must be paid in its own bloody coin. Muslims accept no other tender and scorn those who are stupid enough to treat them generously.

As I have already noted, at some point in the not-too-distant future, a sufficient number of powerful military leaders will finally come to understand that there is only one way of cost-effectively dealing with one and a half billion people.

Right up and until that point, Islam can be counted upon to continue pushing its luck harder than any congenital gambling addict.

When the gloves finally come off, those few Muslims who survive will learn to curse the name of Osama bin Laden. Anything less will most likely mean that we have not done the job right. Worst of all is how:

ISLAM WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY.

Anonymous said...

Its time we treated savages like savages and their civilized surrogates as the treasonous swine they act out as.. I pray "Mr"Patreaus should meet up with the ghosts of Puller, Pershing and Patton some day for his comeuppence.

These slugs sicken me..

Uncle Vladdi said...

Obama: "No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people"

Note the word "innocent" in this sentence? The use of that qualifier to "slaughter and beheading" directly implies that it's religiously, legally OK to slaughter & behead those who are NOT "innocent!" This one statement alone proves that Obama IS a muslim! For what alleged 'Christian' could condone the 'slaughter & beheading' of even a GUILTY person?!

Here's how a Qur'an burning should PROPERLY be done!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qeyrp-V3Jvc

bernie said...

I'm surprised that Washington D.C. has not run out of knee-pads with all the groveling before Muslims going on.

Just FYI, I used your image in my article What Obama Should Have Said about Killings over Quran Burn.