An evangelical church in Florida is threatening to burn 200 copies of the Koran on September 11, “to honor those who were murdered” in 2001. The priest behind this effort says that the goal is “to send a message to al-Qaida.” Of course, the ‘message’ that will be received is that there really is a war between Christians and Muslims.
We will be lucky if the only retaliation is that some equally crazy Muslims somewhere in the world burn 200 copies of the Bible. But if the Muslims up the ante and burn more than 200 Bibles, we may have an escalation that results in all religious books being burned.
What is it about religion that inspires crazy behavior on the part of its most ardent devotees?
Disorganized religion is the best solution IMHO. Religion has for too long been used to control the masses, push political agendas and to collect money. Disorganized religion does none of this and there is no person on top to worry about being corrupt.
I don’t know what Bible this man is reading from, but Jesus did not teach his followers to hate.
If this goes through it really isn’t going to end up well
I agree this might escalate to every religious text anywhere on the planet being burned -- there had to be a silver lining somewhere!
I’ve recently been reading Reza Aslan’s Beyond Fundamentalism and this latest display of shameful ignorance plays right into the idea of “cosmic war” and how actions like this just fuel the fire for people on the other side without accomplishing anything at all.
I’m also pretty convinced that this guy is just attention starved and knows that his action doesn’t send any real message except, “Look at me! Please!”