Thursday, September 09, 2010

USA Pastor has right to burn Quran!

When an American follower of my blog sent me these photos of a Confederate Flag below, I knew I had some advice for the world.
Some guy in Hinckley, Minnesota, at a business not far from a Subway Sandwich Shop, put up various blankets for sale, one of them was of this racist flag. 
Hinckley, a squat little town in the middle of essentially nowhere is about 250 km south of the Canadian border.  The American--who wished to remain unidentified--was sitting in a car taking photos of this blanket. Yes, the American was annoyed with this.  But in America there is freedom of expression and he realised that this white man was using the emotions attached to this flag as an advertising gimmick.  For those who aren't familiar with this controversial flag, go to Wikipedia, under "Confederate Flag".
True, there are many other images that can attract attention, such as the face of Marilyn Monroe or Shaquille O'Neal, but somebody decided to make a blanket of this racist flag, and the man you see decided to buy it and put it up for sale--along with his other blankets.  Even if the Confederate blanket doesn't sell, if it attracts attention and customers to buy his OTHER blankets--the purchase and display of the Confederate blanket was a good investment. 
Now that this white man's face is on my blogsite, will anyone make a big issue of this?  My advice, as a black African, is to simply ignore the white man and silently boycott his business.  Likewise with Pastor Terry Jones, of the Dove World Outreach Center, of a state in the southeast corner of the USA.  Americans have in their constitution a First Amendment which guarantees freedom of expression (free press, free speech, free Internet, and even the right for an American to burn an American flag).
Until just recently, I didn't even know who Pr Jones was.  But now every one in the world does.  My advice is to just let him burn copies of this paper holy book and ignore him.  Further advice: boycott all religions.
What puzzles me is this: "The top US commander in Afghanistan has warned that troops' lives will be in danger if an American church sticks to its plan to burn copies of the Koran.  Gen David Petraeus said the action could cause problems "not just in Kabul, but everywhere in the world". BBC, 7 Sept 2010.
What is America trying to do with its many wars in the world? Are they trying to protect something?  Maybe spread some sort of ideology by force onto other countries? From their many contradictory explanations, I read that one of the reasons is to protect democracy.   Democracy must include freedom of unpopular expression.  The US Supreme Court has upheld the right to burn an American Flag, and even though conservative congressional representatives tried to make a law against burning the American flag (which their Supreme Court would strike down anyway as unconstitutional), the law was never passed.   So if an American can legally burn their flag, then they can legally burn the Judeochristian bible and they can legally burn the Qur'an.   And that's the way it should be.
But various bleeding heart christian liberals in the United States are crying out for all of us to respect people's religious beliefs.  They are nuts!  ALL religions promote violence. I'm sorry, as long as I have any remnant of sanity left in me, I will never respect any religion and the human division, hatred and violence that all of them promote.   I am an atheist, I am a humanist.
People in East Africa are sick and tired of Christian fanatics like Joseph Kony, the white American fundamentalists who come to East Africa to teach Africans to hate and kill one another, and here in Uganda and Kenya, we still haven't recovered from the Islamic-led bombings of people watching TV football.  More than 80 people have died here in Kampala because of the 11th July 2010 bombings.  And we're suppose to respect the moslem religion?  Truely, all those who call for respect of people's religions are silly and should be dismissed as lunatics.
When I tell xtians that I don't respect their religion or the moslem religion, they instinctively say: "Well, then there's no reason to respect your religion."  One problem: I don't have religion.   I don't have a soul to be saved, I am not going before any god on "Judgment Day", I won't be going to "heaven" or "hell".  In short, religion is nonsense.  Worse, religion is hateful and violent.  I respect human rights, democracy, and peace--and religionists don't.
So don't be telling Pastor Terry Jones to not burn the Qur'an.  It's his constitutional right to do so in America.  If moslems don't like it, they should burn copies of the Judeochristian bible.  It should be their right to do so.  As an atheist, I do NOT approve of destruction of property and people's lives as an act of protest. 

Some guy in Hinckley, Minnesota, at a business not far from a Subway Sandwich Shop, put up various blankets for sale, one of them was of this racist flag.

2 comments:

Graham Martin-Royle said...

Excellent response. I don't like any book burning but that's just me, I love books. I think this pastor is a dickhead but, it's just a book ffs. Printed words on paper. That's it. Further, he owns the book, it's his to do with as he pleases. If anyone doesn't like him burning a book, call him a dickhead, ignore him (best response)but don't try to stop him. It's his right to do so.

John Powers said...

You might be amused that the Google ad served me with this post is "Study the Bible online" ;-)

Wow, you know I'm a white bleeding heart liberal American. Seems some Americans are always burning something. I think you're right that the Confederate battle flag is an emblem of racism, but there's an awful lot of meaning attached to it, so it's not just that.

Popular music is often condemned by religious folks. Back in the early 1980's supposedly "hip" folks appropriated the penchant for burning records under the banner "Disco sucks." On the face they were complaining about homogeneous corporate formulas in music, but it always struck me there were racist undertones. I said as much recently and a friend said: "It was homophobic not racist." I'd never thought of that!

Words and actions can cause real harm even if not bodily injury. I tend towards free speech absolutely, but cannot be blind to real harm. But that leaves what to do about it. Generally fighting speech with more speech is the best, at least when ignoring the speech is unbearable.

It is a surprise to see a general elevate a pastor with a church of 50. But see nothing wrong with publicly saying the church's actions will have real repercussions.