quote:The burning would occur the same day that a Florida pastor had threatened to burn Qur’ans, which drew condemnation from President Obama, religious leaders and others.
Shirley Phelps-Roper, who announced Westboro Baptist’s plan, said they don’t think that pastor, Terry Jones, will carry out the burning.
quote:Overton acknowledges that the volume of Iraq War reports that WikiLeaks has made available for the project is massive, and almost certainly more than the 92,000 Afghan field reports the organization made available for advance review to The New York Times, Britain's Guardian, and Germany's Der Spiegel. The material is the "biggest leak of military intelligence" that has ever occurred, Overton says. As we reported when stories on WikiLeaks' Afghan holdings first appeared, the site's stash of Iraq documents is believed to be about three times as large as its Afghanistan collection.
It's like someone opened a bottle of f***.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
This might not be the thread for it, but I've seen it spelled four different ways: Koran, Kuran, Quran, and Qur'an...
Is there a rule when it should be written one way or the other?
Posted by Mucous (Member # 12331) on :
If it's anything like Chinese, they're probably just competing transliterations from the original Arabic.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I personally prefer Qu'ran, but will accept Qur'an or Koran in a pinch. Posted by Tresopax (Member # 1063) on :
The moral of 9/11 this year: A few obviously extreme individuals should not be taken to reflect the character of the nation, religion, or larger group they belong to.
The behavior of one crazy pastor doesn't reflect America's views on Islam. The behavior of five soldiers doesn't reflect the entire U.S. Army. And the behavior of a bunch of terrorists doesn't reflect accurately on the character of Islam.
Posted by The White Whale (Member # 6594) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tresopax: The moral of 9/11 this year: A few obviously extreme individuals should not be taken to reflect the character of the nation, religion, or larger group they belong to.
This should have been more prominent the day after 9/11.
Posted by Mucous (Member # 12331) on :
I'm not really convinced anyways.
Certainly, they are extreme examples but they are not isolated. This Pastor comes after a long trend of increasing disapproval against Muslims, rallying against the Ground Zero mosque, burning down the mosque in Tennessee, protesting against mosques pretty much anywhere in the States, and 30% of Americans describing Obama as "Muslim."
The war crimes that the soldiers committed are merely the latest and most gruesome in a long list of war crimes dating from now to Abu Ghraib and in that case the crimes went all the way to the White House. Who knows what ugly truths Wikileaks will manage to release next?
And Muslim protests against burning a book are hardly isolated, occurring in places as disparate as Afghanistan and Indonesia, and probably leading to death threats and assassination attempts such as in the case of the Danish cartoonist.
I think the most that can be said, is that in each case the most extreme individual does not represent *each and every* individual in their particular group, but they are certainly vivid examples of a much bigger problem than just the individuals themselves in each case.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mucous: I'm not really convinced anyways.
Certainly, they are extreme examples but they are not isolated. This Pastor comes after a long trend of increasing disapproval against Muslims, rallying against the Ground Zero mosque, burning down the mosque in Tennessee, protesting against mosques pretty much anywhere in the States, and 30% of Americans describing Obama as "Muslim."
The war crimes that the soldiers committed are merely the latest and most gruesome in a long list of war crimes dating from now to Abu Ghraib and in that case the crimes went all the way to the White House. Who knows what ugly truths Wikileaks will manage to release next?
And Muslim protests against burning a book are hardly isolated, occurring in places as disparate as Afghanistan and Indonesia, and probably leading to death threats and assassination attempts such as in the case of the Danish cartoonist.
I think the most that can be said, is that in each case the most extreme individual does not represent *each and every* individual in their particular group, but they are certainly vivid examples of a much bigger problem than just the individuals themselves in each case.
QFT
These actions may not be prevalent, but they are certainly systemic, and reflect broader issues that need to be addressed.
Posted by Geraine (Member # 9913) on :
I'm not for the book burning. I think burning any religious text is horrid. I also think there is a huge amount of hypocrisy in some Muslim countries. If they find you with a bible in Saudi Arabia they will confiscate and shred it. If you are carrying more than one they can arrest you, flog you, or even execute you.
It is not ok to burn a Quran, but it is ok to shred a bible and whip you for having it.
Goodness gracious this Pastor is a moron. He is a nut job and I'm suprised anyone goes to his church. I don't know what he thinks he is going to be able to get by burning a Quran except for publicity.
The sad thing is his church will probably grow because of this. Posted by 0Megabyte (Member # 8624) on :
Honestly, I find the book burning thing to be pretty horrid.
I may not believe the Qu'ran is the word of God (like I don't feel the Bible is, either) but come on. There are limits.
Drawing a stick figure of Muhammad on college campuses to essentially protest the fact that people have been killed for drawing him/various freedom of speech reasons is one thing.
Actively burning a holy book with intent to insult them? That strikes me as cruel at best.
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
quote:IN SCENES of calm bemusement not seen in the lower United States since John Scopes taught innocent schoolchildren evolution, it was reported yesterday that Pastor Terry Jones had given up on his plans to burn 200 Korans and was instead planning to incite atheists by soaking a gross of Richard Dawkins's The God Delusion in moonshine and putting a match to them.
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