US starting another war?

[Darren]

A church in America is to honour 9/11 by burning the Koran. I personally can't think of a better way of inciting violence and setting back racial intolerance by decades.

Muslims are not respnsible for the 9/11 atrocities and they are the ones who will suffer. Meanwhile the Islamic terrorists will be rubbing their hands with glee that their enemy is helping to forge even greater divisions between East and West.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457

[Anthony Williams]

What's possibly going to happen on September 11th will be the actions of a small group of evangelicals who do not understand the message of tolerance and peace that Christianity promotes in the same way that the Muslims who commit terrorist atrocities fail to see exactly the same message in Islam.

However, it's hardly the US starting a war. This is the action of a small group of misguided people. The US government has no place in stepping in to stop them - to do so would be a breach of their Constitutional rights (the First Amendment safeguards both freedom of religion and freedom of speech)

Yes, it's idiotic and disrespectful and will only create further divides, but it's not illegal, and the US government would have no place in preventing it.

Fortunately, most sensible people see how stupid it is. And I'm including the vast majority of US Citizens there.

Ant x

[Dino]

I hope sense wins at the end, but I really hope that if this idiocy happens it's given as little press coverage as possible?
Tension will be high enough without every News channel on the planet going "And we're bringing you live pictures of the fire. So pundit, what are we supposed to make of this burning?" every 15 minutes. (Or even worse, as rolling news...)
Some news "anchors" (the word I want to use rhymes with the word in speech marks) will throw their dummy and ago on about curbing free speech etc... but if this isn't a case for sensible coverage, I don't know what is.
The news media are happy enough to leave out some details of their other stories, I don't see why in National Security etc this can be applied here?
Unless the whole thing is a publicity stunt? But even when it hasn't happened yet, the very thought of this has already done some of the damage.

[Si Hunt]

People are pathetic arn't they. Small children could show them a thing or two. Because, well, what use, what good is burning a lot of books going to do to ANYONE? It's not just spectacularly unhelpful, it's meaningless. Anyone with half a brain on either side would realise that religion goes beyond words on a page. Burning a book doesn't mean anything. If these people wern't morons they would say "burning this book isn't going to change these peoples views" and if they did then Islamists would say "burning that book doesn't change my faith or my views".

But no. One lot of people will set fire to some paper, and another lot of people will get offended because some paper they have never seen before has been burnt. God, human beings are pathetic.

Though possibly given the stupidity and pathetic-ness of human beings, there are darker forces at work here. Idle hands are being put to serious work in this pointless endevour.

Si.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Because of course the spirits of all those who died on that terrible day will be going "yes ignite racial and religious hatred in my name".

That said I know it would be illegal in the UK under the new laws they've introduced about preaching hate. However at the same time, in America, there are probably a lot of people who feel this should be allowed, under Freedom of Speech/Expression. And if the state were to stop it, they would be saying "how come THEY are allowed to burn our flag, but we can't dessecrate their symbols".

And freedom of speech is a very important thing to Americans.

[Andrew Curnow]

It just makes you wonder how some people see the world, or even how they think. As Ant says, it's one small group, although we run the risk of it being blown out of proportion by the media if it's an otherwise quiet news day.

[Rob McCow]

I cannot believe how much coverage this ridiculous bunch of buffoons are getting.

The PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES has just asked the not to do it because they'll be ENDANGERING troops in AFGHANISTAN!!!!

As Ed Bradley might say - Whaaaaat?!

[Captain Tancredi]

There's a liberal myth that as long as we go out of our way not to offend Muslims we'll be safe from Islamic terrorism, and a conservative myth that the way to deal with Islam is to force Western secular democracy on the Muslim world.

Neither of these is true, but I do wonder whether the historians of a hundred years' time will wonder what the hell we thought we were doing trying to integrate the two world views.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Hmmm ... I wonder if now the preacher has backed down, there will be a feeling amongst Americans "it's one rule for us ... another for them".

[Jeff]

The news story hasn't even been mentioned since the weekend as far as I can tell. Now that nothing 'juicy' is going to happen no one cares.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Intolerance is a funny thing though - I remember in Afghanistan the Islamic government took great pride in blowing up some several thousand year old statues of the Buddha, thereby upsetting countless Buddhists.

[Anthony Williams]

Intolerance is a funny thing though - I remember in Afghanistan the Islamic government took great pride in blowing up some several thousand year old statues of the Buddha, thereby upsetting countless Buddhists.

Well, as long as we don't upset the Muslims, I guess everything is okay, right...?

Ant x

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Alas Fundamentalist Muslems and Fundamentalist Christians seem to come from the same place - they demand their own beliefs and rights are supported to allow them to disregard the same rights of others ...

[Larry]

just shows there are dangerous fanatics on both sides.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Here's where the difference in law become apparent UK vs US. In the UK, several men who decided to burn a Koran and video it have been arrested for inciting racial hatred.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-11396980

[Captain Tancredi]

Be interesting to see how that pans out, because Islam isn't a race- people of all races become Muslims so I think Plod may have erred there. Over the years this has occasionally caused tensions because it is possible to be ethnically Jewish and this has looked like favouritism.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

If I remember correctly the law has been changed to include religious hatred as well.

[Captain Tancredi]

I've often thought it would be an interesting legal and political situation if somebody arrested for inciting religious hatred turned out to have been injured in the 7/7 attacks or had lost a loved one due to Islamic terrorism.

The laws which are in place are to my mind cowardly, because although they pay lip service to religious tolerance, their main purpose is to prevent British Muslims from becoming radicalised by anti-Islamic sentiment. What our politicians fear is a Muslim Gerry Adams- somebody who can provide a veneer of legitimacy while mobilising support for violent extremism.