Sunday, June 12, 2005

Made in America?

Somewhere in a cave a few weeks ago there might have been a discussion like this:

"I hear some Korans are being torn up and such in Gitmo"

"So? How do you think we start our fires?"

"But they're flushing them down the toilets"

"That is indeed a crime - they should be dried off and used again to start the fires, or perhaps washed and used again"

"But those citizens of the world who make up American journalism think this is a really big deal to us - shouldn't we play along?"

I was under the impression that Islam didn't have much use for idolatry and such. For sure the Wahhabis, who in essence are the bad guys we're fighting in the Middle East, go so far as to redecorate mosques whenever they have taken over. Other, more common strains of Islam are more tolerant.

So what is this about desecrating Korans? Is it a bogus issue from the start, created by Western journalists with no knowledge of Islam? Or is there actually something in Muslim tradition that exempts mere objects like copies of the Koran from concerns about idolatry?

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