Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad in the early hours of Thursday morning and set it on fire, a source familiar with the matter and a Reuters witness said, in a protest against the expected burning of a Koran in Sweden.
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Or to put it in other ways: you can burn a bible just fine.
Heck, someone even got a permission to burn a torah and a bible, showed up and then didn’t burn them, but made his point that he could’ve.
I’m not a believer, but I’d say that the holy book of one of the biggest religions on the planet is rather important in the global context. It’s literally one of the major ethical foundation of over two billion people or at least a big part of these believers.
So like it or no, it matters on the geo political scale. It certainly matters enough to some people to actually storm an embassy over a perceived great insult. Now if that’s a good thing that so many people take it that seriously is another question. I for one don’t like that, but that doesn’t make it go away.
It’s not a friendly act, but should it be banned? Sweden also allows you to burn a bible. Also not a friendly act, but should it be banned? Why sacrifice our freedom to appease religious zealots? We also used to have them in Europe. Our right to burn a bible was not God-given, it took centuries to conquer and is not even legal everywhere.
Now, again, it’s not a friendly gesture, for sure, I wouldn’t do it, but I like to know that I could do it without being arrested, because why should anyone being arrested for burning a book they bought? People are not arrested for burning gallons of fuel while driving SUVs and that I find easier to argue for.
I didn’t argue for either way. I’m just pointing out the importance of this specific book and that obviously we should be aware of potential consequences. It certainly sucks that some people take their religion so seriously to injure or kill other people, but it’s really not unexpected nor unprecedented.
So if Sweden does allow the burning, which does have it’s pros and cons, then they have to consider the ramification they could face. That of course should include taking the security of their embassies in extreme religious countries into consideration. Not sure what they did in that regard, but it certainly wasn’t enough.
It’s very easy to sit behind anonymity and argue for the importance of allowing such freedom of expression when we aren’t the ones put in danger because of it.
I think Sweden, and Denmark for that matter, are very well aware of the potential violence this unleashes, they’ve been suffering quite a few attacks against their embassies in recent years for jokes, cartoons or quran burnings.
And yes, it’s easy for me to say this behind anonymity. I live in Brussels and wouldn’t be speaking so easily under my own name. Which says a lot about the degradation of freedom to express your opinions about religion without fearing for your security in Europe today. So yeah, I don’t want to lose that freedom. Better to close the embassies in Iraq.
Again, I wouldn’t burn a quran. But do I think it’s a sacred book above criticism? No, I absolutely do not.
The Quran does not have to be important to you personally, but burning it has no good intentions towards Muslim populations inside and outside Sweden.
Swedish authorities were informed about the planned Quran burning and actively allowed it. Allowing the Quran burning is imo more extreme and political, than not allowing it.
That’s pandering to terrorists. Don’t bow your head to those who want to chop it.
Don’t bow your head to terrorists. But also don’t bow your head to Nazis.
Am I to understand you’re calling those who burned the Qur’an Nazis? You’re too far gone to argue with in this case. Have you even read why they burned it? To incite a response. Which happened just as predicted.
Not to mention how disingenuous it is to separate the terms terrorist and Nazi. They’re one and the same in the end.
Burning books associated exclusively with certain ethnic groups is obviously Nazi behaviour.
It has happened in the past with the Jews. History is just repeating itself. Terrorists and Nazis are the same shit.
Labeling the Quran burning as a “social experiment” does not make it better. The people involved are not tolerant humanists, who work towards a better future. They simply want to spread their hate.
Don’t put words in my mouth. Nowhere did you quote “social experiment” from, because I didn’t fucking say that. If this is how you argue then just leave.
“Social experiment” was in response to the commenters that claimed that the Quran burning was simply an experiment to expose “the true nature of the religion of peace”.
If you don’t share this view, then I am sorry for misrepresenting your opinion. “Social experiment” was not meant to be a quote.
Burning books is what terrorists do. This is an act of terror.
So, burning books is worse than setting a building on fire, potentially endangering many people’s lives? Wow.
You sure are an advocate of good and justice, never met someone so righteous and rational before 🙄.
Two wrongs dont make a right. And someone beating you up after you insulted him does not make it right for you to have insulted him in the first place.
That is stuff already taught in kindergarten…
Two wrongs? So to you a book is as important as lives then. Move along zealot, the adults are talking.
Nowhere did i say that or imply that. The swedish authorities failed, as they allowed the book burning. That does not make the burning of the embassy right. But justifying the book burning with a false comparision like you do is obviously motivated by your bigotry against muslims.
Projection from someone who equates books to lives. Again, like I already said. There’s no discourse to be had with a zealot, so move along.
You keep telling yourself that burning buildings is fine, I’m sure you’ll enjoy prison.