One way or another, sometimes one gets drawn into debates that go beyond what one intended. That may be the case here with me - and if so, the fault is mine.
I do not dislike Muslims. I have nothing against Muslims. Here is all I wanted to say on the subject of this thread - Quran Burning.
Righly or wrongly, it appears to me that Muslims hold their religion as more sacrosanct than what they feel others of other religions, should be entitled to hold theirs. Now this in itself, is fine so far - every religion may well do this, such being the nature of religion / Gods chosen / the Elect / everyone else is an infidel, etc.
Where I see the imbalance, is the reaction that Muslims feel is justified and that they are entitled to, when their religion is insulted by way of free speech on the world stage, and to some extent, the aquiescence to such an attitude, by others - non Muslims, such as some posters here.
A prime example is the 'piss christ' incident I mentioned in my post #43 in this thread.
The reaction by the Christian world, was indignation, condemnation, etc, but no violent upheaval - no bombings - no murder.
Now just reverse the situation - say a western artist depicted the prophet M, immersed in a jar of urine (let alone merely depicted him).
Just WHAT do you suppose would have been the result throughout the Muslim world ?
I see a huge imbalance here. And I suppose, even here, you might say they are entitled ..
To which I would reply that if they expect to be measured by western standards, and function within the western world, then they should do just that - function within a western world wherein one of the most important aspects of it is freedom of speech - as tawdry and offensive as it might on some occassions, turn out to be.
