US church burning Koran

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

Ho humm. On one hand i find it funny that they get there nickers in a twist so much over a book. On the other hand this chump is only really speaking out and taking action cause it's not his religion. 9/11 is just an excuse for him to bash someone elses beliefs.

ON THE OTHER OTHER HAND (i have 4 hands) if i got a bible, a box and went and stood in a city in Iraq and preached christianity how long would i last i wonder.

Gotta love freedom of speech. Anyways, to me, this isn't a big issue. One church burning another religion's book...I mean, it's not like book burning is a new thing. Used to happen more often than it does now. Imo, it's more symbolic than anything, though. The Koran represents and shows why some Muslims hate the Western world and really anyone who isn't included in their religion. Of all the religions in this world, Islam is probably one of the most serious and threatening ones when it comes to teaching and living. I can't say I know of too many other religions that can be quite as violent as Islam has the potential to be. True, the days of the Crusades had a religious excuse to reclaim the Holy Land, but also to go after treasure. But at the same time, when Muslims go out and declare jihad and attack you simply for not being a part of your religion, what kind of tolerance is that? That kind of tolerance makes this guy and his church look like flies compared to the potential Islam has for conducting jihad. All that aside, free speech is what it is. They are entitled to do what they want within the country as long as no one's rights are offended seriously in the process. Sure, some people over seas and at home with pull their hair out over it, but it's only one church. It might be different if it was an entire denomination or multiple ones. But one church?

He has teh right to do that, just like they have the right to build the mosque near 9/11 ground zero. What he is doing is not helping the situation, but the situation shouldn thave happened anyways. I think that there isnt a single reason why the Muslims who are building hte mosque cant built it somewhere a little farther.

Eye for an Eye though, right?

The New Testament of the Bible preaches about love. It doesn't really promote this type of hate-mongering. He said that he prayed about this but is going ahead with the demonstration. Makes you wonder what kind of Christian this preacher is?

In short, Dano has the correct response here. It does make you wonder. But Ryan, what you are forgetting is that the Christian Bible is made up of two testaments, the second one being more important than the first and the one by which Christians are supposed to go off of. It is confusing considering the fact that the Jewish people of Israel go by only the Old Testament, and of that, the first five books also known as the Torah. But if you understand the history, you can see why the Jews are in this current predicament of fighting with it's neighbors. But back on topic.

The Old Testament essentially no longer applies to how Christians are supposed to live. Many a times in the New Testament, Jesus will say "You've been heard it said...(insert saying/law). But I say to you...(new saying/law)." The whole purpose of the New Testament and really the Christian faith was that Jesus/God wants us to live lives that are for others and not for ourselves...to be humble in everything we do. Of course the Old Testament said those things, I won't argue that, but that was for a different time and under a different circumstance. Therefore, Christianity, in theory, should be the most peaceful religions on this planet. Islam can not have the same said for it. In fact, if you go back to the time of the the Muslim empires such as the Umayyad and Saffavid as well as others, you can see the mentality of religiously minded people of Islam.

For one reason or another, Christianity and been used as a reason for going out to explore, to conquer, and to gain power. I'm sure you and I can both agree that this isn't right at all. You can use religion to excuse anything, but in truth, it's practically impossible to use the Christian faith as a justifiable reason to use since much of the time it goes against everything said by Jesus and other writers of the New Testament. Another problem with the Bible and Koran is the issue of interprutation and translation. In any of what I'm saying, I don't want to imply or suggest all people of Islam are like this. In truth, I think most of them are not (reason being that Muslims, Christians, and even the Jews had friendly relations for a short time, but eventually got broken off due to various reasons. But, when people like this pastor interprut the Koran in bad ways, they will respond and act accordingly. Jesus said we are to "Love those who hate you and pray for those who persecute you." If this is the case and what Christianity is all about, then it should follow that this pastor is going about what he is doing all wrong, and I can't believe for the life of me that God would encourage him to do something like this. He may FEEL its the right thing to do personally, but it sure as heck isn't God telling him to do it.

Anyways, my first point in the end that this pastor is not representing the Christian religion. Rather, I believe he is going off his own personal convictions and the convitions of his congregation instead of what the Bible and Jesus actually say. Secondly, America is a free country that offers its citizens the freedom to speak their minds openly without threat of reprecussions unless of course they violates others right inthe process or speak libelously or slanderously. Lastly, if there were only two people on this earth, then you will still have conflict. You can't please everyone and no matter what you do to prevent it, it does no good to shy away from a subject and pretend like it doesn't exist. This is an issue facing us in this day and age and if there could ever be any considerable ground made, it does no good to point out what someone is doing wrong and leave it at that. This world needs discussion and the only way you are ever going to convince someone if they are right or wrong is by talking it out and not just saying it's right or wrong.

The entire history of the human race is testament to the fact that people will forever and always use religion as a weapon. There's nothing we can do about it.

Click

The pastor cancels the burning. For what? He wants the mosque to be built near Ground Zero to be moved/canceled.

So there is this Christian person extremely devoted to their religion (that they are often blinded by it, they are so devoted). And there is this event going on at a community centre promoting anti-homophobia. They do not like this. Their faith disagrees with this. They lock everyone in the community centre and burn it down. Nine years later there is a Christian church being built a few blocks away from the former site of the community centre. Should there be opposition to this? Because of a single person's actions that they would justify they were doing it in the name of their faith, the Christians who wish to build a church on that zone should feel fierce hatred and threatened because of the location? These Christians did not participate in the massacre, but they are labelled as supporting the person's actions and agreeing with them and their church is labelled as a shrine mocking the deaths of innocent people. Just because their location is so close to where the tragedy happened.

I think the logicial response to these Christians who wish the church to be built so close is to start burning bibles. Yeah insult their religion because of one man's actions. He must represent all Christians.


That is my interpretation of this. Not that I have researched the building of the Mosque or the Muslim religion to know anything of either.

I'll start by first saying that the reaction this has caused is utterly ridiculous. I was watching the news yesterday and they showed an interview with a Muslim in Iraq (I think), and he was saying how they [him and other Muslims] would burn down the US embassy. As far as I'm concerned, this is the single wost thing to come out of all of this. There's some cranky old religious nut in America burning what is after all, just books, and the people who disagree with it will go as far as to burn down buildings, and presumably, use it as an excuse to shoot anyone who looks "western". This is despicable!

To be honest, I really couldn't give a money's **** that someone's burning copies of the Koran. I really can't be doing with this "symbolism"- it's a book, and that's an end of it. It wouldn't matter if it was the Koran or children's picture book. It's just an excuse for fanatical Muslims to shoot more people and blow more stuff up. And to those who are truly offended by it, just grow the hell up.

It's not that I necessarily agree with what this American is doing, because I don't care, it's just sad that it's provoking this reaction. This is everything that's wrong with this World, that someone can get so fixated and obsessed with religion. Religion itself is not the problem, in this case at least, it's that fact that something so totally insignificant is enough to cause a medium-sized war.

Of course it's not a coincidence that this has all kicked off on the anniversary of 9/11. But like you elude to, he does have some justification.



I think there are some elements of Islam that make it inherently less tolerant than, for example, Christianity. But like you say, the Christian ideology has been tamed by society much more than Islam.




I don't really have an opinion on the mosque issue, but it seems quite simple to me. There are a group of people who, right or wrong, have a specific reason why they don't want the mosque to be built there. However the people building the mosque don't seem to have a real reason why it should be built there, rather than somewhere else. So whichever "side" you're on, it therefore seems sensible to just move it, right?



I don't care what the church hopes to achieve, and whether or not it succeeds really doesn't bother me. But freedom of speech is important, even if what you have to say may offend someone. We can't all live our lives tiptoeing around everyone else just in case they may not like what we have to hear. As for burning the Bibles, people probably wouldn't like it, but there would be one big difference- they wouldn't respond in such an aggressive and frankly ridiculous manner.

As for the Christian's "holy battle", the Bible may well say to "kill nonbelievers", but the difference is, nobody actually does it. I dare say in other religions there's similar teachings, but Islam is the only religion that actually carries it out. That's the difference.



You're comparing burning a dozen books to suicide bombs and religious "martyrdom"?!



He has every right to do this. I've said it before and I'll say it again- IT'S A BOOK. People are only "insulted" by it because of the symbolism THEY GIVE IT. I could say that a book symbolises whatever I want it to, and then use someone burning as an excuse to burn down embassies and blow up an shopping centre, but does that make me justified?




It's totally different. In the '50s people discriminated against black people AND IT ACTUALLY MEANT SOMETHING because it actually made a difference to peoples' lives. This is just burning a book, and if it weren't for all the media attention, nobody would be any the wiser, and nobody would care! It's a book, and you can label it what you want, and claim it symbolises whatever you want, but that doesn't make it discriminatory.