Newsweek and the Quran are apparently both in the toilet.
Lots of people are blaming Newsweek for the riots by Muslims protesting the supposed “desecration” of the Quran. The deaths resulting from Newsweek’s report may indeed point to flaws in the quality of reporting at Newsweek, but they also point to flaws in the quality of adherents to the Islamic faith.
Fanatics who are willing to riot and kill over the burning of a book get no respect from me. I don’t care if you are Christian or Muslim or Jainist. Whether or not U.S. government interrogators flushed a copy of the Quran down the toilet is irrelevant. This is the same cancerous kind of thinking that is destroying our way of life in the U.S.
If someone disrespects your favorite book, you don’t get together for a riot. That’s silly. Print more copies of your book and distribute them to those who want them. However, any religion that mandates the death penalty for “desecration” of its holy tome should be marginalized and discouraged at every opportunity and its adherents should be the pariahs in a civilized society. They should be constrained from violent outbursts and educated zealously and constructively.
“It’s not acceptable now that the magazine says it’s made a mistake,†said Hafizullah Torab, 42, a writer and journalist in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, where the protests began last Tuesday. “No one will accept it.â€
News flash, Mr. Torab. Newsweek isn’t the main problem. Rigid and easily offended religious fanatics with a penchant for violent rioting are the main problem. The only thing worse than religious fanatics are religious fanatics who are also in charge of a national government.
Newsweek may need to work on the quality of reporting. Interrogators at Gitmo may need to change their tactics. But Muslims need to police themselves and stop acting like spoiled children. The pious and self-righteous are a cancer that is eating the well-being of the human species.