Burning Words

A few weeks ago I wrote about how America need not apologize for its treatment of dead enemy soldiers.  Turns out that small furor was nothing compared to our latest request to apologize.

This week in Afghanistan, some NATO troops accidentally burned some copies of the Quran.  Apparently this is a serious no-no in Islam, burning former trees that have taken the shape of the word of Allah.  It may shock some that this act resulted in massive demonstrations there, with many people killed including two Americans, but read this and you won't be that surprised.

With all due respect to the beliefs of another religion, this really is an outrage - to humanity.  Equating a bound compilation of wood products that was put together in some print shop (maybe in China?) with something so sacred that human violence and death is wished upon its (accidental) desecration?  This is taking the concept that Christians might call 'Word Made Flesh' to a whole different level.

To add injury to insult, President Obama apologized on behalf of America.  He called the act "inadvertent," and said, "We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible."

OK, I'm sure at some level we had to do this to try to save other lives - presumably American lives.  But damn him for making me agree with this reply from none other than Newt Gingrich: "The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two Americans."

Of course, the Taliban rejected the apology anyway.  They called on Afghans to take revenge, saying, "We should attack their military bases, their military convoys, we should kill their soldiers, arrest their invading soldiers, beat them up and give a kind of lesson to them that they never dare to insult the holy Quran."

Clearly, it's less offensive to some Muslims to kill people than it is to burn a Quran.

I suppose all religions have doctrines that don't make sense.  Regardless, if any belief or act can be justified in the name of a religion (be it Islam or Christianity or anything else) you don't have a religion, you have a cult.  That's something we'd all be better off without.