BBC: Qur’an Burning Bad, Fatwa – No Comment

Generally speaking, burning books is not an overly good idea, and the reaction to the Dove World Outreach Centre’s Qur'an burning this Saturday will be a predictable outpouring of outraged hatred by Muslims across the globe. Life, limb and property will be threatened and lost. It will be a demonstration of the hair-trigger sensibilities and irrationality of doctrinaire Muslims who are more concerned with the well-being of a few pieces of paper than of a woman buried up to her neck being pelted with stones, a little girl having her clitoris mutilated, or of an apostate whom they believe deserves death. Their sense of proportion I find to be slightly askew.

I’m not a Christian, so unlike Pastor Terry Jones I do not believe that Islam is the work of the Devil because I believe in neither Devil nor God, but I do understand the point that he makes when he contrasts the widely differing personal examples of Christ and Mohammed. Whereas the reported acts of Christ present us with an overwhelmingly positive figure, those of Mohammed depict a sadistic butchering paedophile. The US Constitution protects the freedom of expression, so Pastor Jones has every right to burn Qur’ans if he so wishes. No problem.

The BBC, typically, has picked up this story and sought to portray Jones as if his planned act constituted the declaration of World War III. Is Jones’s quranic barbeque an insensitive act? How does it look in comparison to the Muslim world’s reaction to the following: Mohammed cartoons – kill the infidels responsible! Sudanese Mohammed Bear – death to the infidel! International Draw Mohammed Day – death to the infidel! Robert Redeker’s criticism of Islam – death to Redeker! Geert Wilders’s criticism of the violent aspects of Islam – death to Wilders! Theo van Gogh – killed the filthy kufr!

It all gets a bit repetitious doesn’t it? Death, death, death, death! And these people wonder why we don’t believe them when they claim that Islam is a religion of peace (sic). It’s a mass death-cult, end of story. For the BBC though, it will always be the cosy ‘religion of peace’ which deserves respect and reverence from all, with Muslims requiring constant and vigilant protection from nasty ‘Islamophobes’ who threaten Muslims with . . . debate.

So, whilst the BBC gets all exercised about the injury that will be suffered by a few pieces of paper this Saturday what I would like to know is the following: why are the morally bankrupt journalists at the BBC not reporting the Facebook fatwa placed on the head of French secularist and anti-Islamist Christine Tasin? This woman is threatened with murder. Does she feel less pain than a book? Christine Tasin is unique: there is only one of her. Copies of the Qur’an however are ten a penny. Why will the BBC not see that the violence linked to the Qur’an burning and the death threats to Tasin all arise from the same source: belief in Islam. Islam is the most violent barbarous ideology on the face of this planet. Is a woman’s life less important to the BBC than protecting Muslim sensitivities? It would appear so. Come on BBC, get a grip and report the Tasin case!

As for vast hypocrisy about book burning, take a look at the following Al-Jazeera report which shows the US military burning copies of the Bible in Afghanistan last year. Was there global Christian outrage, rioting and bloodshed? No, of course not, because Christian psychologies are characterised by the central notion of guilt and personal responsibility, whereas Muslim ones are characterised by notions of 'honour', blame and shame. So, this Saturday when Qur’ans burn in Florida, remember that any violence that arises will be entirely the responsibility of the perpetrators of that violence.