June 23, 2005

This May Offend You

A case of Koran "desecration" . The Tennessean reports:

"It's in the heart of every Muslim. We respect and we love (the Koran) more than our families," said Ab-dishakur Ibrahim, imam of the Al-Farooq mosque. "I don't know why anyone would do this. I can't comprehend it."

See, in my religion - Christianity, perhaps you've heard of it - we love what's in the book because we love the author of the book, but we don't "love" the physical book itself to an irrational degree. The Bible teaches us to love each other, not make physical objects - statues, temples, a book - into an idol. "The Word" came from God, but the book that holds those words came from the printing presses at Zondervan.

The Nashville Koran defacement case is being investigated as a "hate crime," the news reports says. But if the stupid person who did it had instead just submerged the Koran in a bucket of urine and put it in an art gallery it would be called "art" and he'd get a federal grant to pay for it.

I'm sorry, I can't call it "desecration" because to use that word is to tacitly accept the Muslim view that the Koran is sacred, but if somebody defaced the Koran in order to make a threat of bodily harm or other criminal activity, he should be prosecuted for making a threat. But defacement of religious items should not be a crime in America. Andres Serrano's Piss Christ was highly offensive to me but, while "art" such as that should not be federally funded, neither should it be criminalized. Neither should the defacement or destruction of the Bible, the Torah, the books of Hinduism ... or the Koran.

Such defacement is certainly offensive to the person whose faith book is being defaced and also offensive to people of all faiths who believe in tolerance and respectful treatment of those with whom we disagree. But this is America, where people of all faiths or no religion all have the right of free speech, a right that includes the right to make offensive statements - even if that statement is in the form of soaking a crucifix in urine, or defacing a Koran with flame or feces.

In America there is a constitutional right to believe and practice your religion freely, and a constitutional right to free speech. There is no constitutional right to be not offended.

UPDATE: Donald Sensing wonders if the defaced Koran might have been defaced by a Muslim.

The whole thing smells fishy to me. The partially-burnt Quran stayed on the step at least from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday noon. The neighborhood is mostly Muslim, though not exclusively. Who would have a spare copy of the Quran but, ISTM, a Muslim? My prediction, based on not much more than gut instinct and serving two years on the staff of a federal law-enforcement agency, is that this deed was done by a Nashville Muslim and was part of small but deliberate effort to self-victimize the Nashville Muslim community, sort of like this. This strikes me as a publicity stunt on the part of a few Muslim youth, I am going to guess in their mid- to late teens.

But the fact that the DA’s office is seriously discussing sending someone to prison - not jail, prison - for this incident is very disturbing and illustrates the bankruptcy of the whole idea of "hate crimes."

Sensing notes that the Council on American-Islamc Relations is now trumpeting the Nashville case as proof of "growing anti-Muslim sentiment" in America.

"It would be difficult to come up with a scenario in which this incident was not bias-motivated," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad. "Our nation's leaders need to address what seems to be a growing level of intolerance and anti-Muslim sentiment in American society." Awad asked people of conscience in Tennessee and throughout the nation to repudiate anti-Muslim bigotry by obtaining and reading a Qur’an.

CAIR has launched a campaign, called "Explore the Qur’an," designed to provide free Qur’ans to Americans of all faiths. I think I'm going to start a campaign called "Explore God's Word," to provide free Bibles to Muslims in America. I'm sure that will go over well with CAIR.

UPDATE: According to news reports, some 's Muslim community are uppppsettt because they had to dial 911 to get the cops' attention. They called 911 over a torn-up book. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one

They probably should never give a Koran to my kids - they tear up books all the time.