"For this, you riot?"

This was an article written by Dennis Prager (The National Post May 18, A-16)

Prager comments on the riots in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world. He wonders why we accept such behaviour from Muslims without negative media comment. He shows how the Buddhists didn't riot and burn down mosques when the barbarians in the Taliban blew up the irreplaceable, giant Buddha statues in Bamian. Yes, there was world-wide condemnation of such vandalism, but no Muslim was put at physical risk because of it. Likewise, he mentions that the Jews didn't go ballistic when they discovered the Jordanian desecration of Joseph's tomb--used as a latrine. Where is the general Muslim condemnation and outrage at Muslim fanatics who blow up mosques and their worshippers in Iraq and Pakistan? Surely these acts do more lasting harm to their religion than a single defiled Koran?

As for Newsweek, their reporting of this now debunked story borders on the traitorous. Their blind liberal hatred of President Bush and the entire war effort in Iraq has caused uncalculatable harm to Americans. The fanatics will seize on any excuse to brand Americans as The Great Satan. Meanwhile, they will continue to blow up their co-religionists without a shred of concern about censorship from their own religious leaders. Where are the fatwas when you need them?

© Bud Talkinghorn--Certain aspects of Islam are starting to take on the cloak of the Nazi party. The same complete lack of any moral qualms can be seen in their actions and justifications for atrocities.




Do Riots Save Islam's Honor? By Irshad Manji, May 17, 2005

Irshad Manji is author of "The Trouble With Islam Today," recently published in paperback by St. Martin's Press.

So Newsweek has retracted its report about the defiling of Islam's holy book, the Koran, by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.

But it's too late. Muslims everywhere are questioning America's respect for all religions. Journalists are wondering what standards allowed the charge to be printed without proof. Foreign policy analysts are asking how the riots incited by the charge will affect the war on terrorism. Still, at least one more question needs to be asked: Even if the Koran was mistreated, are violent riots justified? [. . . . ]

An intelligent writer.

---