Burn a Koran....vandalize Mosques across the country.....denounce Islam as a cult...publish/promote nonsense of a coming Caliphate that is dangerous to America.....hold Muslim's right to free expression of their religion to a higher standard than others as a result of fear promulgated by haters.

Small degrees of separation that feed off of each other.

Hate is hate.

I'm chickening out of the clone thread: Burn a Korean Day :bolt:

It seems to me that symbolism is a big thing for Americans and those in certain parts of the Middle East – or perhaps it’s really just with religious folk.

You may, or may not find this relevant (and tedious).

Back in the late eighties or thereabouts, early days for what we now call ‘reality TV’, they ran a short series of programmes over here filmed in a small Spanish hotel. Tourists from four countries – England, Germany, the US and (I think) France stayed in the place for free on consecutive weeks understanding that they would be filmed. The guests didn’t know much about the show or that there were stooges in residence too – the idea being to see how the different nationalities would react to different situations. Meals would be served late, the bus driver taking them to an outing would be drunk, one of the stooges would steal drinks from the bar (the English helped him, the Germans tried to stop him and reported him immediately when he wouldn't) – that sort of thing.

Anyway, on their respective last days the groups returned to the hotel from an outing to find a large national flag that had hung in the dining room for the duration of their visit had been partly burned. No-one cared much, in fact if I recall correctly the Germans found it funny. Not so with the Americans though – there was anger and something approaching violence to the hotel staff. With the show over the participants were told that all the incidents, including the flag burning, had been faked for the show, and they all showed the expected amusement – but not, as you guess, the Americans. They were fine with everything else but not the flag, women were in tears, one of them insisting she be allowed to take it home to American soil for burial. Some of the production crew took refuge behind their equipment after someone from the team suggested that it was ‘just a piece of cloth’.

My point? Oh, you think I have one?

Well, I suppose it’s only that just because you find something important doesn’t mean everyone else does and if you do find some kind of symbol important to you be aware that others might have their own. Flags and Bibles and Korans don’t mean much to me but while I might be happy to toss one in a bin or burn it while clearing out I certainly wouldn’t do it in attempt to upset or antagonise others.

You forgot a few - flying planes into the buildings, murder, bombing, kidnapping, rape, stoning, terrorism...
yup.

That is exactly the point.

When you make that connection, by blaming a religion for the actions of those few (among 1+ billion) who debase the religion for their own political/ideological purposes, you feed into the hate that creates backlash.

And by promoting that ignorance and blaming the religion , you becomes part of the problem and not the solution.

IF you feel so strongly about blaming Islam for flying planes into the buildings, murder, bombing, kidnapping, rape, stoning, terrorism..why not blame Christianity for the extreme Christian Identity movement that relies on the novel The Turner Diaries for their mantra to exterminate Jews and non-whites in America and overthrown the government by force.

Or blame Christianity for Scott Turner acting on his Christian beliefs by murdering an abortion doctor in cold blood in Church.

Repeat...when you promote ignorance (Islam is a terrorist religion), you are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

It's journalism. They post stories that will rouse emotion so people will keep reading their newspaper or watch their TV show. It obviously has worked, haha.

But just have a counter protest like the many against the Phelps family. Just burn something completely ridiculous next door and no one will cover the Quran book burning.

I pointed no finger at anyone - just listed a few more examples of things done as a "result of fear promulgated by haters" to add to your list.

I'll make the argument that his speech is not protected speech under the first amendment as it is tantamount to "inciting to riot" and "hate speech" neither of which is protected. While he is not literally inciting people to riot, his actions are dangerously close to that.

He is an asshole.

I'm somehow very proud of all the above comments by Dwellars

This AM on TV one of the reporters said the preacher was being pressured to cancel and was saying they would go ahead with the "event". The reporter then said the preacher had left some wiggle room by saying that he would cancel if "his God spoke to him"

What would he do if it was Allah that spoke ?

You made that connection, not I.
You are the problem when you twist what others say, misconstrue their meaning and create tangents that didn't exist.

I did not, nor do I blame Islam, just the extremists. Whatever their race, religion or ideology does not matter. It is you who continue to create this false argument that others are blaming islam, not I.
You are so extreme in YOUR views that you continue to perpetuate this completely incorrect argument.

fixed that for you ;)

Lamplighter's question reminds me of the story about Nasruddin traveling with a Jew and a Christian. They are hungry and have no food and come to an oasis where they see a chocolate cake cut into 4 pieces, so they each eat a piece of cake, leaving one. After a while they fall into debate about who should have the last piece. Eventually they agree to sleep on it and whoever has the most spiritual dream should be rewarded with the cake.

The next morning they awake and share their dreams. The Jew tells how Moses came to him, walking through the parted Red Sea, bearing the tablets, surrounded by burning bushes, telling him that he was most deserving of the cake. The others agreed that his dream was full of very spiritual imagery, but then the Christian went on to describe and equally elaborate, significant dream with angels and seraphim bearing gold, frankincense, myrhh, and chocolate cake. And again, they all agreed it was na exceptionally spiritual dream. They asked Nasruddin about his dream and he said, "I dreamed Allah told me to wake up and eat the cake, so I did."

Something they have generally failed to do in a big way.

Complete straw man argument. Stop trying to compare the recent violence of a limited number of extremist in this country to the immediate death of over 2800 people on 9/11.

I really don't trust the guy. He basically has a congregation of 50 people and now has the whole world looking at him for his greatest 15 min of fame, all fueled by the press coverage.