I hadn't heard this before now but apparently that loony tunes pastor from Florida who was threatening a bonfire of Korans a few months ago actually burnt one a couple of weeks ago.
My guess is the reason why I hadn't heard about it until now is that the news media very sensibly did not give the matter much attention if any.
In any case news of this event did somehow find its way to Afghanistan with the consequence four Gurkhas, a Norwegian, a Swede and a Romainian, all working for the UN have lost their lives.
What any of these people had to do with nutty Floridian Pastors is a mystery to all.
But then logic has never been a strong point of mobs.
My guess is the reason why I hadn't heard about it until now is that the news media very sensibly did not give the matter much attention if any.
In any case news of this event did somehow find its way to Afghanistan with the consequence four Gurkhas, a Norwegian, a Swede and a Romainian, all working for the UN have lost their lives.
What any of these people had to do with nutty Floridian Pastors is a mystery to all.
But then logic has never been a strong point of mobs.
Sounds to me as though all those "protestors" wanted was an excuse for terrorism to be honest.
ReplyDelete"the news media very sensibly"
ReplyDeleteNothing 'sensible' about that at all Andrei. What you are saying is that it is sensible to kowtow to the sensitivities of the muslim community, which is not 'sensible' at all. The question whether the murdered had anything to do with the 'nutty' pastor is just as irrelevant. Even if these people WERE the nutty pastor, that still is no reasonable explanation why they had to be murdered.
You make the dramatic error that so many people are making in that you accept the (cultural relativist) premise that we are dealing here with rational people, and hence you find a contradiction, which you try to solve by declaring the pastor "nutty" and by asking what the killed people had to do with the pastor. I suggest you revisit your premise, and conclude that we are NOT dealing with rational people here, and hence, that they must be approached with a similar lack of rationality, or not be approached at all.
Bez
What you are saying is that it is sensible to kowtow to the sensitivities of the muslim community
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying anything of the sort, you pick your fights. Normal people do not go out of their way to offend other people. I see no earthly purpose in giving people who do this sort of thing the publicity they crave.
we are NOT dealing with rational people here
Agreed
Unfortunately we share the planet with irrational people, such as those who burn Korans and those who react with violence to the burning, with the rest of us are in the middle, such as those people who lost their lives over this.
That's the second time I type a long argument in the comment field of this blog, only to have it lost upon posting.
ReplyDeleteI give up..
Why burn one religious book and cause a problem when we can burn every religious book and solve one?
ReplyDeleteThe alleged book burning was merely an excuse for a mob of primitives to murder more non-muslims.
ReplyDeleteYou've fallen for the trick these people have found to be very effective, Andrei and that's to look for "root causes". They always have a spurious 'reason' for their slaughter of innocents.
Nobody burned a Koran in Beslan....
In fact the root cause is their primitive, vicious ideology and it's time Westerners recognised that fact.
nasska is right - 2 thumbs up!
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, we have a case of Muslims taking offense at a book burning, a pastor who proved the obvious, and here on our blog, atheists getting all excited by the prospect of burning books.
ReplyDeleteFrom barbarians to idiots. Look how far we've come.
I don't buy into "root causes" KG.
ReplyDeleteJust because these people who died were murdered by a bunch of savages stirred up by evil men using the pitiful excuse of a burnt book to do it does not mean the person who burnt the book isn't a fruit loop for burning it.
Actually I'd like to see the dude who burned the book put his money where his mouth is,d fly to Kandahar and pull the same stunt.
Rather than bravely doing it in the civilized environs of Florida.
Perhaps it might make a few people wake up, but I doubt it. Some just don't get it that Islam is a threat to Western society
ReplyDelete"..it does not mean the person who burnt the book isn't a fruit loop for burning it."
ReplyDeleteFruit loop? He was making the point that Americans in America are protected by the Constitutional right to free speech. In a country where people who burn the American flag enjoy that same protection.
Islamists have succeeded in defining what is and is not free speech in Sweden, in France, in Britain and Italy. They've succeeded because people have become afraid of the consequences of exercising that right.
Good on the Pastor.
...people who burn the American flag enjoy that same protection.
ReplyDeleteFollowed by:
Good on the Pastor.
So, basically you're saying "Good on people who burn the American flag?" For their heroic stand for freedom of speech? Or something?
If you don't understand what I said, Psycho, that's your problem.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt was followed by "good on the Pastor" after I wrote "Islamists have succeeded in defining what is and is not free speech in Sweden, in France, in Britain and Italy. They've succeeded because people have become afraid of the consequences of exercising that right."
ReplyDeleteA very convenient omission on your part. But then, you're a leftoid and honesty doesn't come naturally to you.
The Koran burning was yet more work done on the behalf of your god. *slow clap*
ReplyDeleteA very convenient omission on your part.
ReplyDeleteOmitted because it was such obvious bollocks it wasn't worth mentioning. None of the countries you mention have the USA's excellent constitutional protection of freedom of speech. In the case of Britain, its libel laws and a judiciary selected from among the ruling class have long been effective in restricting speech. In the other countries, there isn't any tradition of freedom of speech and so laws against "hate speech" and holocaust denial turned up in the statutes pretty much without dispute. All of which predates and wasn't influenced by this supposed Islamic threat you're always wetting your pants over.
What you've actually provided is two examples of American nutbars exercising their freedom of expression by doing stupid, provocative things for the sole purpose of making people they don't like angry. You support one of them over the other merely because their particular idiocy panders to your own prejudices.
one more case, as if any were needed, of how religion makes people stupid.
ReplyDeleteTry burning books by Dawkins, Dennet, Harris, et al and see what atheists, humanists and rationalists do,
Well sensible people just ignore " Dawkins, Dennet, Harris, et al"
ReplyDeleteIndeed the trashing of Christian symbols is a common enough occurence viz Virgin in a condom, piss Christ etc. And such events are not followed by beheadings and random acts of violence, now are they?
And as it happens the correct way to dispose of a Bible is to burn it - reverently, rather than to put it out with the garbage.
Try burning books by Dawkins, Dennet, Harris, et al and see what atheists, humanists and rationalists do
ReplyDeleteYour mistake there is to see a book burning for the irrational rationalists as equivalent. The thing is, you have your sacred cows, things that set off rabid and irrational responses. You are just so 'morally superior' you haven't figured that out yet.
The thing is, you have your sacred cows, things that set off rabid and irrational responses.
ReplyDeleteWould you like to name one?
@David:
ReplyDeleteNot at this point in time. I'd prefer you to figure it out.