Nothing bad about burning Koran

Submitted by Viiit (Taiwan), Sep 25, 2010 at 11:08

Daniel,

Your article about the burning of Koran was excellent. I have only one, very important disagreement: You start your article with condemning the burning of the Koran "let it be emphasized, is a distasteful act that fits an ugly tradition."

Yes, many ugly people including Hitler burned books. But that does not make book burning ugly. Just like brushing teeth is OK even if hypothetically Hitler also brushed his teeth.

This is not like burning the Alexandria library, where almost all the books were originals, the one and only one such book in existence without copies. The pastor is not depriving anyone of the opportunity to read the Koran. He is merely expressing his opinion about Koran in a dramatic way. Nothing wrong with that. Absolutely nothing. My concern is that by labeling such symbolic speech "distasteful" you are joining the likes of David Petraeus, Robert Gates, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.

The burning doubly valuable speech, it expresses the Pastors views, and it at the same time exposes the violence and supremacy of Islam.

The reaction to the burning of the Koran has nicely illustrated your point. Without the intended burning, this point would not have been as clear, so the burning was not only dramatic, but also effective communication.

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