h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...if you do it as a protest?
Should Quran-burning be made illegal?

I'd say it was stupid.

Burning books doesn't destroy ideas, it just drives them underground.It also makes those who revere the ideas even more determined to pursue them.It antagonises people needlessly and creates conflict where it perhaps hasn't existed.

So it's stupid rather than wrong.

I note the title you've chosen.

What do you mean by 'wrong'? Wrong because its *sinful*, which you've frequently talked about in the past on other threads. Or wrong because of possible public order implications? You need to define this.

We do have Laws which are to do with something being likely to cause public disorder. These Laws can be used in all sorts of ways that impinge on free speech and action. So it's a question of where you draw the line, because most people don't want to live in a society that might fall into bloody chaos.

But we do have a strong tradition of free speech and action here. In general I prefer to let public disapproval do its job rather than use laws.

In this case I think we should *not* make it illegal. Appeasing some people who give the impression that they might react in a violent way to such a thing is a bad road to go down.

I think doing it is rude and 'uncivilised', knowing full well that many of our citizens consider it something holy and precious.. I assume most people will probably think something like that...so hopefully if idiots carry on doing it, they will just be ignored as 'nutjobs'.

It has already caused at least 24 deaths:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/04/world/asia/04afghanistan.html?_r=1

On that basis, there's a pretty damn good case for it being illegal.

I was referring to our society.

I don't think I've understood you correctly. Do you mean to say that we can ignore 24 deaths as a direct consequence of this action, because that consequence did not happen in our society?

Is it wrong to burn the Quran?

No.

...if you do it as a protest?

No.

Should Quran-burning be made illegal?

No.
(But, it effectively is in the UK thanks to Labour.)

Let's do a bit of reductio ad whatsit: If I say "I am going to kill anyone who says the word 'fish' to me", then someone says the word 'fish' to me and I kill them, who is wrong me or the person who said 'fish'? Should saying the word 'fish' be made illegal?

However stupid and insane this act of burning it made the person concerned look, its made those that then decided to embark on killing people look even more mental. No one's died as a result of this 'book burning', they've died as a result of mental religious nut-cases killing them... To make burning a particular book illegal is giving into these religious nut-cases, and doesn't do anything to stop their actions and violence, so wouldn't, really, actually achieve anythign anyhow...

The word you're looking for is ad _absurdum_, and rightly so. Nobody is going to say that, because there is no reason for anyone to say that. The word 'fish' is not the embodiment of an entire cultural and social identity, and stating it does not carry the symbolism of violence and destruction to it.
Also, if someone said the word 'fish' to you, solely for the purposes of angering and upsetting you, should they not be correctly identified as a ?

By the way, I am against any new laws being put into place against this kind of thing, because we already have plenty that fit the bill: encitement to religious hatred, public disorder offences, etc. plus, no doubt, a fair few regulations regarding the burning of anything, anywhere.

Personally, I think that it is wrong to burn a book, as a protest or for any other reason. To burn the Koran, as well as being the burning of a book, is also simply rude.

It is also rude to spit on a bus, but expectorators on buses do not need to be executed, nor do commuters in Vancouver have the right to murderously riot because someone spat on a bus in Karachi.

As for illegalities, as has been mentioned, most civilised jurisdictions have laws against incitement. The Koran does not need nor deserve special protection.

There are million of Christians and million of Muslims in the world. A few Christians led by delirant hatred burn a symbolic object and another bunch of delirant Muslims take that action as an excuse to have a feast of hatred and death.

We are talking about a few on each band, who at the end of the day belong to the same crazy bunch of idiots.

Your question, Kuzushi, is absurd.

Is it wrong to burn the Quran?

depends on how cold you get!!

Or if you've run out of toilet paper.

Why would you burn a Koran if you've run out of toilet paper?

Oh I see you were trying to be witty

Is it wrong to burn a Quran? No.

Is it wrong to point at laugh at the mentally inadequate? Yes.

Are the people burning the Quran mentally inadequate? Yes.

Are the people who CARE that they're burning a Quran mentally inadequate? Yes.

Should the laws for the rest of us be based on the behaviours of the mentally inadequate? No.

Or trying to avoid being something that sounds like witty (_!_)

How many Christians rioted when Muslims openly burned Salman Rushdie's 'Satanic Verses'???



GT

Good grief, are people really this cowardly?

If you've got something to say, then say it.

Burning religious creeds, or indeed learned books of any kind, is pretty reprehensible, but it would be a sad and weak legislature that made such a thing illegal.

Murdering innocent people who had nothing to do with the incident, though, that really is profoundly wrong. That's the behaviour of uncivilised people who have no comprehension of spiritual or moral values. Anybody who thinks that such murders are condoned by Islam is misguided to the point of evil. And anybody who considers that such murders are somehow justified by the prior act of book-burning is simply despicable, and deserves the unconditional contempt of the entire of humanity.