Is committing murder over burned Korans a common Middle-Eastern disposition?

[Alessan]

@Merneith

I have no idea what things are like for Jewish- and Muslim-country people, but I can’t help wonder if part of the difference with first-world Christian-dominate countries is the mass produced nature of Bible.

I’ve got at least half a dozen bibles kicking around this house. Maybe more. And we’re not a particularly religious house either. Somehow, bibles are just everywhere. They aren’t treated differently than any other book. They’re just on the shelves and in boxes, and so on. If they all go up in smoke, I can run right out to Barnes & Nobles and buy another dozen just like them. I can probably call around to the churches near me and they’d all be happy to just give me a bible.

It’s hard to work up much concern about objects - even a sacred objects - when they’re so cheap and easy to come by.

I suspect that a hundred years ago, bibles were rare and precious. But today? They’re everywhere. I don’t know if that situation pertains to other peoples’ holy books in other countries. I can’t help wonder if peoples attitudes about the Koran isn’t tied in part to a time when printed books were hard to come by.

No, it’s a theological issue. For instance, no Jew with even the slightest level of religious belief would ever write the Hebrew letters YHVH on a piece of paper, or set them in a document that wasn’t clearly defined as a religious text, to be treated with reverence. Note that even I, a not particularly observant guy, am avoiding typing them out right now, on my computer, and that’s just electrons.

To a Jew, the written name of God is holy - much as the Host or the holy water font is holy to a Catholic. I’m pretty sure Islam is similar; the two religions have a lot in common, far more than either has with Christianity.

[El_Kabong]

@magellan01

Here’s my favorite. Girl seen walking home from school with boy who was not a relative. The girl’s family is up in arms and this gross indignity. Takes to to the village court which holds court over the matter. The verdict. Yes the girl’s family suffered an unimaginable insult. The remedy? Well, the boy just happened to have a sister. So, the idiots figured, let’s even things up by allowing all the male members of the family—father, brothers and uncles—rape the innocent boy’s even more innocent sister. No, you couldn’t make this shit up. And we need to keep in mind that these are the type of people we’re talking about when they’re killing innocent people because a book was desecrated.

Actually, someone (I’m not saying the person who posted it) could easily make such shit up. Magellan01, surely you know better than to post such a tale without providing any means of independent verification that it actually happened. Likewise, it seems more likely that you posted it purely to demonstrate why we should all hate muslims rather than for any particular relevance to the actual subject of this thread.

Absent an actual muslim providing a context for the outrage over the Koran-burning, my take is that, as someone else has said, it has been seen, fairly or not, as a deliberate gesture of contempt by occupying forces, toward people who already feel that they are being opprossed without much ability to resist. It certainly would not be the first time that fatalities occurred over a perceived symbol of oppression.

[magellan01]

@El_Kabong

Actually, someone (I’m not saying the person who posted it) could easily make such shit up. Magellan01, surely you know better than to post such a tale without providing any means of independent verification that it actually happened. Likewise, it seems more likely that you posted it purely to demonstrate why we should all hate muslims rather than for any particular relevance to the actual subject of this thread.

Absent an actual muslim providing a context for the outrage over the Koran-burning, my take is that, as someone else has said, it has been seen, fairly or not, as a deliberate gesture of contempt by occupying forces, toward people who already feel that they are being opprossed without much ability to resist. It certainly would not be the first time that fatalities occurred over a perceived symbol of oppression.

I don’t think this is the actual story I recall reading, but it fits what I said.

http://www.paklinks.com/gs/pakistan-affairs/23799-raped-teen-recalls-punishment.html

Thanks for asking for the cite, as more people will now be able to read about the savagery done in the name os Islam—TODAY!. If you’d like more, feel free to google “Shiaria” and combinations of “gang-rape”,“honor killings”, “stonings”, “adultery”, etc.

[Merneith]

@Alessan

No, it’s a theological issue. For instance, no Jew with even the slightest level of religious belief would ever write the Hebrew letters YHVH on a piece of paper, or set them in a document that wasn’t clearly defined as a religious text, to be treated with reverence. Note that even I, a not particularly observant guy, am avoiding typing them out right now, on my computer, and that’s just electrons.

To a Jew, the written name of God is holy - much as the Host or the holy water font is holy to a Catholic. I’m pretty sure Islam is similar; the two religions have a lot in common, far more than either has with Christianity.

I see. Point taken.

[ralph124c]

Why is it when some faction of Islam blows up another faction’s mosque, there is no rioting? I mean, the korans inside got blown up too.
Sunnis seem willing to destroy Shia korans-so what is the big deal?

[Marley23]

@ralph124c

Why is it when some faction of Islam blows up another faction’s mosque, there is no rioting?

Please tell me that’s a fucking joke and that you are actually well aware that Iraq’s bloodiest period of civil war started when a mosque was blown up.

[Kimstu]

@magellan01

This is what is so whack about some strains of Islam. Just do a search of Sharia Law and look at the atrocities committed against people (particularly women) as a result of court deliberation. Here’s my favorite. Girl seen walking home from school with boy who was not a relative. The girl’s family is up in arms and this gross indignity. Takes to to the village court which holds court over the matter. The verdict. Yes the girl’s family suffered an unimaginable insult. The remedy? Well, the boy just happened to have a sister. So, the idiots figured, let’s even things up by allowing all the male members of the family—father, brothers and uncles—rape the innocent boy’s even more innocent sister.

You’re right that horrific oppression and violence against women is a feature of some strains (namely, radical extremist strains) of Islam. But if you imagine that this sort of thing is unique to Islam, the reality is even more depressing. Check out, for instance, what some ultra-orthodox Israeli Jews have been indicted for in Jerusalem:

A 31-year-old Jerusalem woman was cruelly beaten and threatened with death by members of the ‘modesty squad’ who took it upon themselves to interrogate her about her relationships with men, an indictment filed Thursday by the Jerusalem Prosecution reveals. […]

The Prosecution says that the woman once belonged to the ultra-Orthodox community, but abandoned that life after her divorce in 2005. After seizing the woman, the men toppled her to the floor, kicked her repeatedly and then gagged her, warning she would be blinded with mace and stabbed if she dare open her eyes. She was then ‘interrogated’ by Buzaglo and his ilk, as they tried to force her to disclose the identities of men she had been in contact with.

The group, which also hurled profanities at the woman throughout the ordeal, is also accused of threatening to kill the woman if she did not move from her apartment. […]

Based in the religious neighborhoods of Meah Shearim and Geula, the modesty squad has declared a crusade against violations of Halachic law and what it views as ‘unchaste’ behavior. According to the indictment, the group has elected to employ intimidation and violence as the means to this end.

I don’t think that this sort of thing is by any means a “Middle-Eastern disposition” (and as Ibn Warraq pointed out, Afghanistan isn’t in the Middle East anyway). I think all forms of religious extremism are vulnerable to it, especially when untempered by the restraints of secular society.

[Kimstu]

Yikes. These ultra-orthodox “chastity squad” goons really are batshit.

According to the indictment, Weisfish took part in “Chastity Squad” protests that were regularly held outside the computer store, which the members accused of selling “non-kosher” MP4 players. According to the “Chastity Squad”, the gadgets expose users to inappropriate content.

During these demonstrations, which began in June 2008, Weisfish would drive customers out of the store, damage merchandise and threaten to murder the employees and burn the store down.

He would also curse the employees and call them Nazis and pigs. The indictment describes events that occurred at the height of the protests against the store owner in August of 2008, when Weisfish assaulted the store owner and brutally beat him.