>>Burning the holy books which are interconnected with the hearts and souls of millions of people around the world is one of the most heinous and dreadful actions which one can think of.<<

It's just a book. An inanimate object which can be easily replaced. How about we save the hyperbolic moral indignation for when he starts burning people?

Cheers,

Tony

You can't tell an individual or a private organization not to burn things on their own property so long as the fire and smoke cannot reach adjoining properties, but I am appalled by the fact that Jones received police protection during his ceremony.

Such stupid operations place the lives of soldiers and others in danger, so it should be made clear that it is a private act that is not supported by the state, neither by endorsing and financially supporting that church, nor by protecting its members: let them be the first to feel the fear which soldiers and tourists will feel in Muslim countries as a result.

The reason Jones can 'get away with it', is that he lives in a liberal democracy, not an Islamic theocracy, Moslems' 'Holy Book' is just another collection of superstitious drivel to unbelievers. The author just doesn't understand secular society.

"After decades of bloodshed and bigotry in the two World Wars, Civil War in the United States and Crusades against Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries, burning the holy books can be interpreted as a new form of barbarity and ignorance in the modern era and an unforgivable crime which can be justified by no standards whatsoever."

The author seems to forgotten the 1000 year jihad against Christianity and the West carried out by Moslems which only ended when the West became too powerful to attack.

The koranic trylogy is over 50% anti semitic and anti kaffir as well involving the treatment of women that is decidedly medieval and backwards.

Further their precious prophet and so called perfect man, was nothing more than a sexual deviant and murderous thug

The source for this are their own books ..which obviously very few of them have ever read.

For more just Google

http://www.politicalislam.com/

the fact that so many lives are at risk by this man burning the Koran shows how barbaric followers of the prophet are. Not surprising when you face the truth about Mohammed as Bigmal has outlined.

Kourosh Ziabari
Get a life ! How about if I download the Koran and then later delete
it, is that an equally terrible thing to do ?

If not, tell me the difference !
Bet you do not reply !

This Iranian guy persists in posting this one sided propaganda.
He is probably a government stooge.

The strategy of the Islamists is to use the freedoms inherent in the Western countries against them,for example the freedom of the press.

If we were to post a one sided article such as his in any Iranian media,it surely wouldn't be published and quite likely a knock on the door in the early hours of the morning would follow.

He conveniently omits to state how the Islamists are treating non Muslims,including hatred for churches and other Christian symbols, sexual abuse of Christian women; forced conversions to Islam, apostasy and blasphemy laws, theft and plunder in lieu of jizya (tribute)and overall expectations for Christians to behave like cowed "dhimmis" (barely tolerated citizens).

Just outright oppression.

Plus of course plenty of violence and murder.

Often it is a combination of all or some of these.

Maybe his dubious talents could be better employed in defending the rights of all the persecuted minorities in his and other Moslem countries.

It always amazes that Islamists can have the gall to expect other countries to behave (much) better than the way they behave towards non Muslims and their minorities.

Quite incredible!!

I remember when with tax payer dollars we had to tolerate the "art" of a cross of Jesus in a jar of urine and a picture of Mary, mother of Jesus with elephant dung on it. Burning a Koran is probably considered art by those same Americans. Terry could probably get paid for burning a Koran by the National Endowment of the Arts (provided he did it very artistically - maybe he could play music and dance while doing it).

I remember when with tax payer dollars we had to pay for the "art" of a cross of Jesus in a jar of urine and a picture of Mary, mother of Jesus with elephant dung on it. Burning a Koran is probably considered art by the same Americans. Terry could probably get paid to burn a Koran from The National Endowment For the Arts (provided he did it very artistically - maybe he could play music and dance will burning it).

How can we ever hope of convincing the stupid that they're wrong when some of our people are even more stupid ?

Burning a printed copy of a book is described as "one of the most heinous and dreadful actions which one can think of"

It comes nowhere close. Flying a plane full of people into the side of a building occupied by other people might come close. Taking people hostage and tormenting them for months before beheading them (with associated video recording) might come close.

Denying women education and demanding they be covered from head to foot because you might have an impure thought is way ahead of burning books.

Excusing pack rape on the basis that the victim is seen as uncovered meat is worthy of far more outrage. Punishing victims of rape is way ahead of the burning of books.

Destroying massive almost irreplaceable ancient sculptures from another faith is not near the top of the list but it way outranks the burning of copies of a widely available book.

The list could go on and on.

It's a copy of a book, burning individual copies does not take anything from anybody. The books that have or may be burnt are not the last copies in the world, if the numeric number of books is important print some more.

The book burnings are rude and say a lot more about those who burn them than about the book. The level of outrage at the burning of books compared to the limited outrage displayed over a range of atrocities says even more about those who consider that book to be of some worth.

R0bert

Crikey, it's hard to maintain a belief in the intrinsic niceness of Moslems and Islam when the burning of a book leads to calls for extra-judicial killing by the US govt and fears of violent actions against people who had absolutely nothing to do with the burning.

Could we get an answer to the "download the Koran and then later delete" question, as many of students of religion have done this? I do not want to die for an inadvertent crime

'Burning the holy books which are interconnected with the hearts and souls of millions of people around the world is one of the most heinous and dreadful actions which one can think of.'

Actually, I would say beheading someone and proudly posting a video of the act on youtube, blowing up dozens of innocents in a market square, throwing acid into the face of a young woman for the 'crime' of speaking to a man who is not a relative, stoning or flogging rape victims for 'adultery', murdering one's female relatives for having boyfriends, mutilating the genitals of young girls ... THOSE are the most heinous and dreadful which *I* can think of.

Burning a book? Stupid and ignorant, but ... big woops, really.

What needs to change, is the entirely unprovable assertions of a stone age poeples' belief system? Stone age, in effect, because it validates a stone until dead practise, outlawed centuries ago, by more enlightened people.
The 11th and 12th centuries?
I don't remember much about that era, except that competing superstitions, had very different versions of what transpired, whenever ordinary if extremely ignorant advocates gave themselves authority to speak and or kill in God's name.
[Apparently 6 million Muslims were mindlessly put to the sword and killed during the era now referred to as the Great Crusade, simply because, they and or their Christian counterparts, couldn't ever agree on the name they used in reference, to a one true God/Creator; they all apparently believed in?] Extraordinary?
And even more extraordinary, in that some groups believe that there any justification whatsoever, in killing/persecuting the entirely innocent descendants of those warring in God's name Christians.
Or rather, almost anyone not wielded to their own and endlessly revised and edited, paper and ink supported belief system? Which by the way, completely outlaws the spilling of even so much as a single drop of innocent blood, or, restricts Holy Jihad, to only an entirely internal struggle against one's own internal demons!
However, if I had my druthers, an extremely juvenile Jones would be punished by the very means he advocates for all others, and bent over a beam or some-such and publicly flogged in front of his entire congregation, until his burning backside was the only thing feeling the heat? Rhrosty.

Book burners can do harm to individual copies of a book. They can't by the action of burning a book harm the reputation of that book. The burning is at best a symbol unless the burners are able to get at most of the copies of the book or deprive others of access to a copy of their own.

Those who do the most harm to a book are those who claim that it's of value, that it plays a significant role in their lives then proceed to live in a way that brings the book into disrepute.

That harm comes when people commit atrocities in the name of the book, it comes when other followers are willing to mass in the streets in protest at the actions of those who don't claim to follow the book but are almost silent when great evil is done in the name of their book.

The lack of balance displayed by the authors comments if as widely known as the book burnings would do more harm to the reputation of the book than Terry Jones could possibly hope to achieve.

R0bert

I do so love it when authers write trite little pieces that assume that Islam is such a wonderfull and enlightening religion, when the documented reality is something quite different and so easy to demonstrate.

I wonder whether any of them have ever read their books ...but given that they are not stories a such, but a random collection of verses not in order..it is not surprising.

The biggest irony is that the oldest versions are actually written in Aramaic, which is a semitic language.

Finally the Koranic trylogy have more verses/words dealing with violence and anti semiticism than Hitlers Mein Kampf ..and that takes some doing

I doubt that anyone in the West takes Terry Jones too seriously.

You might be better off lobbying politicians to either criminalise or enforce ancient blasphemy laws.

To clamp down on stupidity can only be achieved by beating around the bush i.e. diplomacy.
To confront it head on only gets us to where we're now.
There's ample evidence that stupidity is a huge percentage in every generation & every generation has to deal with it. Some generations have dealt with stupidity successfully but the next generation undoes all the tough work. That's the nature of stupidity.

I can't help wondering whether, if enough people burnt enough Korans, eventually all this manufactured outrage would fizzle out. But I'm quite sure that as long as we knuckle under to any religion's ridiculous and unjustified demands for special treatment, those demands will go on getting louder and more obtrusive, and more and more destructive to our everyday lives.

Jon J,

Yes, so do I. Unfortunately there are two main factors that prevent civilised society from desensitising Moslems to 'outrages'. The first is that people are understandably scared of reprisals and the second is, of course, the doctrine of 'multiculturalism' which conflates religion and race and presents Moslems as the 'eternal victim'- they're a powerful combination.

As the author of the article demonstrates, many Moslems can't accept any society in which they aren't the ruling caste, they're not entitled to special pleading in liberal democracies.

From Political Islam

Thisis what we are dealing with:

"Summary

Critical thought brings new insights to the study of Islam. Islam is not a matter of opinion, but has a solid rational basis in its foundational texts. Simple statistics reveal the systemic nature of Islamic doctrine.

What do these cases demonstrate? Here are some of the principles that a simple statistical analysis shows:

Islamic doctrine is found in the Koran, the Sira and the Hadith—the Trilogy. Any explanation of Islam that does not include the doctrine found in the Trilogy is wrong or incomplete.

The Koran is a small part of Islamic doctrine. The Sunna of Mohammed is textually more important than the Koran.

The Koran can be understood by reconstructing the Koran of Mohammed, the historical Koran.

The kafir is the major doctrinal focus of Islam. The kafir has the lowest status of all animal life. The doctrine of the kafir is defined as political Islam.

Islam’s success was not based on the religion alone, but also on politics and jihad.

The Sira devotes most of its attention to jihad and politics, not religion.

Islamic doctrine is dualistic in its reasoning and ethics.
Jew hatred is an integral part of the Trilogy.

There is no unmitigated good in the Koran for kafirs.
Jihad was integral to Islam’s success and forms a large part of the Trilogy.

The Islamic doctrine subjugates women.

Now, if it were the last remaining copy, that would be something.

One can hope.

Save the outrage for real literary treasures, not cobbled together "scripture".

Rusty

To now round this silly article out, and to give it some perspective on reality, here is the latest Bulletin of Christian Persecution

Who cares who is burning the koranic books and how many times, and why he gets away with it

The real question is why is Islam so backwards,hypocritical and intolerant

http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/bulletin-of-christian-persecution-april-6-may-8-2012/

Thank god for the internet and its ability to let the world see the untarnished truth

I agree that the burning of a collection of bound pages is, in itself, inconsequential. However, the act cannot be looked at in isolation. The person doing it, knows exactly what response it will elicit. And that's the key. Burning the Koran, pictures of Jesus in urine, etc are designed to offend. Anyone who tells you otherwise is delusional or lying.

To all those who say it is nothing compared to flying planes into buildings, I 100% agree. However, such behaviour will only encourage more such acts of terrorism.

It serves no purpose and certainly brings no good, so don't do it!