An anti-Islam activist who burned the Koran at several protests, sparking outrage in Muslim countries, has been shot dead in Sweden, a day before a court was to rule on his case.
If you look at my other comment, I’m not interested in destroying information, or preventing people from reading it.
IDK. This has big MAGA “own the libs” vibes. Not in the sense that it’s a politically conservative act, but in the sense that it’s a reactionary act of pointless antagonism.
There are a great many films, songs, theatre productions and works of art over the decades that one could call “pointless antagonism”. Especially against religion and claims of power.
I’m not saying burning a Qur’an is “art”. I’m saying doing it is a health check on liberalism vs insipid religious privilege.
I don’t think antagonism is useful for its own sake in general, but specifically in the face of an ideology that would seek totalitarian control? Yes very much so.
We routinely enjoy productions from Hollywood and the like where the megalomaniac bad guy’s organisation is blown up and burned up the ground. Though no-one would ever get specifically offended by this. But it is what we like to do as a liberal society (the West as a whole). We burn and destroy pretenders to the throne and systems that want to enslave us. (Even capitalism see Fight Club etc etc)
That’s why I didn’t mean to single out Islam. I think religious fascism (or totalitarianism) in all its forms should be lampooned and figuratively (or literally) burned on a regular basis. I think being offensive to fascism is a vital part of speaking freely.
My caveat is that it should be easily avoidable by those who don’t want to see it. Staging a blasphemous Christian play at an art festival? Go for it. Projecting it on the wall of a church? No thanks. Burning a Qur’an in your own yard with friends and videoing it? Go for it. Outside a mosque? No thanks.
IDK. This has big MAGA “own the libs” vibes. Not in the sense that it’s a politically conservative act, but in the sense that it’s a reactionary act of pointless antagonism.
There are a great many films, songs, theatre productions and works of art over the decades that one could call “pointless antagonism”. Especially against religion and claims of power.
I’m not saying burning a Qur’an is “art”. I’m saying doing it is a health check on liberalism vs insipid religious privilege.
I don’t think antagonism is useful for its own sake in general, but specifically in the face of an ideology that would seek totalitarian control? Yes very much so.
We routinely enjoy productions from Hollywood and the like where the megalomaniac bad guy’s organisation is blown up and burned up the ground. Though no-one would ever get specifically offended by this. But it is what we like to do as a liberal society (the West as a whole). We burn and destroy pretenders to the throne and systems that want to enslave us. (Even capitalism see Fight Club etc etc)
That’s why I didn’t mean to single out Islam. I think religious fascism (or totalitarianism) in all its forms should be lampooned and figuratively (or literally) burned on a regular basis. I think being offensive to fascism is a vital part of speaking freely.
My caveat is that it should be easily avoidable by those who don’t want to see it. Staging a blasphemous Christian play at an art festival? Go for it. Projecting it on the wall of a church? No thanks. Burning a Qur’an in your own yard with friends and videoing it? Go for it. Outside a mosque? No thanks.