Is a book really worth all this?

[Balpin 12]

Unfortunately, no, we’re not. And, at the risk of repeating myself, the issue at hand is bigger than ‘the book’. These people have issues much bigger than that. And most of the real hard nut ‘terrorists’-if not most, many of them-are more nationalist zealots, rather than die hard Jihadists. Flip the script for a second and consider the reaction if we were occupied by them and they did that.

 

Well, it seems as if most of us are, beyond being overreactive, it seems.

 

It seems to me, as if educated muslims, the 'intelligensia' like having these morons to call upon.

No intelligent man believes this guff, about it being an insult to god.

But these people are handy when it comes to facing the guns.

Useful idiots, I believe a famous leader of the mid 20th century called them.

[JFKvsNixon 11]

To dust off an old chestnut; ‘the exact same applies to near enough every holly book ever read’. It’s been like that forever, and will be that way for a long time. The Muslims do not have the monopoly on holly-book based buffoonery.

 

Unfortunately it's not just confined to the religious zealots as look at the effect Marx and Engels' books had on the world.

[mj.scuba 10]

Try reading what I've written rather than what you assume I've written - I've made the point twice already that I neither condone nor excuse the violence.

 

I'm merely saying that I understand why those people are angry.

 

I see, so you empathise with a bunch of murderers, but not people who smash windows.

 

The word you use to describe people that are smashing windows is "cretins". What words do you have to describe these murderers?

[Balpin 12]

Try reading what I've written rather than what you assume I've written - I've made the point twice already that I neither condone nor excuse the violence.

 

I'm merely saying that I understand why those people are angry.

 

In what way do you understand it?

 

Are you a devoutly religious man, who adores books?

[Glamrocker 10]

And yet you were glorying in these deaths, you even betted on how many would be killed, which makes you as bad as them.

What are you on about now ? are you on the same frequency as the rest of the forum ?

[Kaimani 10]

Really so if I burned a bible in the middle of Sheffield and said I was a Muslim, there would be wholesale shootings and murders down Darnall way..somehow I dont think, so do you ?

 

But the case at hand is special. This didn’t happen in Ohio or somewhere else in America. This happened in a country they’ve been bombing, as one if theirs said, ‘back to the stone age’. It’s a very different situation. We can take it just be all religious.

[Kaimani 10]

Well, it seems as if most of us are, beyond being overreactive, it seems.

 

It seems to me, as if educated muslims, the 'intelligensia' like having these morons to call upon.

No intelligent man believes this guff, about it being an insult to god.

But these people are handy when it comes to facing the guns.

Useful idiots, I believe a famous leader of the mid 20th century called them.

 

Most of ‘us’, might be, yes. But as we’re seeing, a zealous minority can wreak havoc. I think it’s a very big mistake to claim mental superiority over someone because they choose to believe whatever god they want to. It eliminates any real possibility of understanding the other side. No matter how enlightened we all become, we’ll be in the same space in a hundred years if we don’t find a way of reasoning with the zealots - Christians, Jews, Muslims…

[Kaimani 10]

Unfortunately it's not just confined to the religious zealots as look at the effect Marx and Engels' books had on the world.

 

True. And Mao, Hitler, the Khmer rouge (sp)…

[Halibut 12]

In what way do you understand it?

Are you a devoutly religious man, who adores books?

 

As I said before to those who fervently believe the book to be the word of God and a sacred object in itself the burning of it represents the greatest insult imaginable.

 

My position is not that I agree with either their beliefs or actions, it's that I understand their rationale for being very angry about it.

 

For the record, I'm not bevoutly religious, but I love books and take a dim view of them being burnt.

[Balpin 12]

Unfortunately it's not just confined to the religious zealots as look at the effect Marx and Engels' books had on the world.

 

Do you honestly compare the the works of Marx and Engels with religious works from the middle ages?

[Balpin 12]

As I said before to those who fervently believe the book to be the word of God and a sacred object in itself the burning of it represents the greatest insult imaginable.

 

My position is not that I agree with either their beliefs or actions, it's that I understand their rationale for being very angry about it.

 

For the record, I'm not bevoutly religious, but I love books and take a dim view of them being burnt.

 

I accept your explanation then Halibut.

But I must say to me, that smacks of idolatry, which is explicitly forbidden in the Abrahamic religions, is it not?

 

I also love books, and anyone found burning them should be thrown on his own fire.

 

The exchange of knowlege and information is vital to humans, to destroy a book 1000 years ago would be like losing the internet today.

Perhaps that is where it comes from, but you probably find this crowd are wearing MU shirts and Ferrari caps.

 

But I think these people are being used, and need a reality check.

[Halibut 12]

But I think these people are being used, and need a reality check.

 

By whom do you think they are being used?