Burning Question
A fair number of people have been killed in Afghanistan due (allegedly) to anger over a Koran-burning at Pastor Terry Jones' church in Florida. The first news report I heard (on NPR) noted none of the victims had anything to do with the burning. I understand why they made this point, but it's not as if the killings would in any way be justified if they'd got the "right" people.
And now Harry Reid and Lindsey Graham are getting into the act:
HARRY REID: I think people should understand the consequences of what they do and under the guise of religion.
REPORTER: Congress is considering a request from Hamid Karzai to offer its own condemnation.
HARRY REID: And I think we'll take a look at this as to whether we need hearings or not, I don't know.
REPORTER: Both sides of politics are united. Republican Lindsey Graham.
LINDSEY GRAHAM: You know, I wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea but we're in a war.
If Reid wants to speak out against Koran burning that's his business, but exactly what would be the point of hearings? To discuss the full list of things Americans shouldn't say or do? As for Graham, seems to me he wants to hold the wrong people accountable.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:11 AM
2 Comments:
The American press, for once, did the right thing: it ignored the guy. I suppose that some of them might have had bad motives (censorship), but hopefully most of them had the right motive (when a dozen folks in Florida purchase a book and then burn it, that's not nationally newsworthy).
And nobody in Afghanistan even knew about this, until Hamid Karzai loudly and publicly denounced it.
I wonder what exactly Reid and Graham don't want us to do. Clearly they don't want a pastor to burn a copy of the Koran in public. May a non-pastor burn this book in public? May someone burn it in their backyard? In their garage with the door open? with the door closed? If we can't burn it, can we handle it with the same level of care that we usually handle our own books, or must we handle it with the level of care that devout Muslims use?
Finally, everyone is wrong. According to Muslim law, a translation of the Koran is not the Koran. So Jones didn't really burn the Koran anyway. Too bad Karzai didn't mention this part.
It reminds me of discussions about a flag-burning or flag-desecration law--just what is a flag? What if you draw one on a piece of paper and put it on your front door--is it a felony to butn it in your fireplace when you're done with it? Or if you made a festive flag during harvest out of various fruits and vegetables and food coloring--can they throw you in jail for tossing it on a compost heap later? What is someone has a picture of a flag in a mattress ad in a newspaper. Are you required to dispose of the newspaper along particular lines? What if it's an American flag but it has 51 stars because you want Peurto Rico to be a state--can you burn that at a protest without fear?
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