NOT COOL

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Okay, two things about this clusterfuck:

1. Terry Jones is an anthropologically myopic asshole, ascribing attributes to another religion that could have an equal application, or misapplication, to his own. On the other hand,

2. I don’t fucking care what the book says; it is not more important than somebody’s life. If you have become murderously violent toward random people simply because some asshole on the other side of the world has disrespected a copy of it, you really need to reexamine your priorities.

People wonder why atheists get exasperated by religion. Sure, without it I’m sure humans would behave this stupidly over something else, and I would probaby get just as exasperated over that, too, but I hate that religion gets a free pass to do this sort of bullshit. This is just unbelievable.

Comments

[anagramofbrat.livejournal.com]

too lazy to bugmenot with that link - what's going on?

[beccastareyes]

Basically, Terry Jones, the pastor who said he was going to burn the Qur’an so people would Pay Attention to Him! (and also Jesus or something), finally got around to doing it, and then a bunch of folks in Afghanistan decided the proper response to this was to kill Westerners. (To be fair, a lot of other folks are mentioned as peacefully expressing their opinions via demonstrations and protests*, and the last paragraph notes a local religious leader who was all 'you know, the international coalition weren't making friends even before this started'.)

* Granted, I don't know how protesting the actions of a grade-A asshole private citizen in Florida is served by picketing his government's people in Kabul. I'm not going to march around the Kansas State Capitol because of Fred Phelps.

Why they're protesting...

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

They think we should have killed Jones in response. Apart from complete ignorance about the incident or his lack of importance in the US, (or how our Constitution works,) the people in the Middle East don't care about facts.
Last year some 18 yr old kid from Iraq or Afghanistan (I can't remember which) was on the news saying we should all die because we all supported Jones. He said he hadn't read the news or heard it on the radio. Friends had told him they'd heard that all Americas were supporting Jones, and he just believed that. So he was out protesting and helping in the riots. So, you know, violence based on gossip.

Idiots.

Re: Why they're protesting...

[shadesofmauve]

the people in the Middle East don't care about facts.

...and this makes them different from people anywhere else how, exactly?

The western world has more than enough fact-phobic citizens to publish a whole newspaper full of pull-quotes. Violence based on gossip happens... just about everywhere violence happens, unfortunately.

Re: Why they're protesting...

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

To be fair, you're absolutely right.
As examples;
Sarah Palin is thought of as a brilliant political leader with a shot at being President.
Obamacare will create death panels.
Obama isn't a citizen.
Gay marriage threatens traditional marriage.
Islam is a violent religion.
The Tea Party.
Government shutdown is the way to go.

Yeah, we're as bad, if not worse than a bunch of stupid kids running wild in the streets of Kandahar. We have the internet, cable television, NPR, and really, we of all people should know better, yet we don't. People like Jones aren't the problem so much as a symptom of the problem, which is, of course, willful ignorance.

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that these aren't terribly literate people, and acting out in this kind of fashion is one of the few ways they are conditioned to express the kind of anger and fear they feel at the idea that someone would burn their holy book. They can't wrap their heads around things like "just how big America is" and "how many different kinds of 'Christian' there can be" - because for them there is only one way - the way things are, and any deviation from that.

Not excusing, but a little understanding.

[black-rider.livejournal.com]

Actually, I wouldn't say it's their literacy or failure to grasp that people are different, because these people ARE educated. They have a functional society with arts, education, and high culture. Not to mention a military engaged in international warfare, which takes at least a bit of a large world-view. It's insulting to imply otherwise, and trivializes their suffering.

I wouldn't even say that they only see one way and tolerate no deviation -- that seems colonialist at best.

I would say that it's the mob-response of people and a society that has been pushed to its breaking point by unwaivering rhetoric (from both sides) and violence (again from both sides) and as a result, they feel they have no other way to be heard.

For some reason, the world listens when you scream about religion. It cares a lot less when you scream about justice, famine, lack of social equality, secret prisons and pervasive fear, or just about anything else that isn't religion.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

For some reason, the world listens when you scream about religion. It cares a lot less when you scream about justice, famine, lack of social equality, secret prisons and pervasive fear, or just about anything else that isn't religion.

That's what I find so frustrating. I feel like religion keeps getting in the way of solving, y'know, REAL SHIT.

[stormteller.livejournal.com]

There are about as many kinds of Muslim as there are Christian. None of them would probably condone burning a Quran, but most would probably not condone killing random innocents in retribution. The people acting out now are the same kind of extremist as Jones himself- idiots with no true grasp of their own religion, using it as a crutch to justify expressing their own fear and frustration.

[blackbyrd2.livejournal.com]

A: It's all about Terry Jones wanting attention. (as beccastareyes notes in her reply to bottledgoose)

B: While I'm all for freedom of speech, you can be thrown in jail for shouting Fire in a theater. Jones should be locked up for treason, because he could reasonably expect that his actions would endanger the lives of Americans around the world.

I don't care how stupid it is to kill someone over religion (and believe me, I think it's pretty farking stupid) you don't go slapping the redneck with the shotgun and telling him he'd make a good girlfriend if he'd just open up to trying the gay lifestyle. Certain outcomes are expected. Burn the Q'uran, and religious zealots will try to kill you and all your friends.

As I've said elsewhere, Jones should get the opportunity to practice his freedom of expression. In Afghanistan. On his own.

I'm completely in support of religious zealots of all stripes having the opportunity to remove themselves from the gene pool.

[renshai.livejournal.com]

While I think Terry Jones is a complete and utter asstoque, I also think these demonstrations have been building for a really long time in Kandahar. I'm sure for some of these people, Jones' idiocy was just the straw that broke the camel's back - but I've got no doubt that the Taliban absolutely leapt at the opportunity (built-in justification!) to incite some good old-fashioned violence in an area that the coalition has been trying to build goodwill in for years.

[van.livejournal.com]

Holy crap so glad this isn't the Monty Python Terry Jones. He's a huge dick sometimes too, but generally in an atheist, Pythonesque way.

This is seriously a clusterfuck though, holy crap. GOOD JOB THERE.

[piccolo-pirate.livejournal.com]

The best part (I'm using "best" loosely here), is that Jones didn't just burn the book this time - his "church" put the Quran "on trial", and found it guilty of crimes against humanity. The book. THE BOOK. On trial. I'm losing my mind here and sputtering out two-word sentences of total headdesk. Jones was quoted as saying "...we put together a trial. In that sense, we were not going out just to burn the Koran, although the result was that it was burned. If you are found guilty of a crime in the US, you do not get to go home. There has to be a punishment."

Because apparently in the US court system, we also try religious texts. And the punishment for the verdict of "didn't like it" is "BURN IT TO DEATH!" That's not symbolic and inflammatory at all. *headdesk*

[marnanel.livejournal.com]

So are they going to put the Bible on trial next week?

[piccolo-pirate.livejournal.com]

That would require them to acknowledge the amount of senseless violence (not to mention blatant contradiction, if you're "reading it literally") in the Bible, so I suspect... no.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

They're not rational people; don't expect them to act rationally.

[sriti.livejournal.com]

You know what pisses me off? Its actions like these that make people all over the world fear and hate Muslim and Islams. Islam is a religion of peace, for God's sake! The only thing that this kind of zealous, retarded behavior will achieve is that Jones will gain more supporters.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Ugh, yeah. I hate it when any group gets judged by its assholes. But people find that so easy to do when they've never met a member of the group ...

[acrossthelake.livejournal.com]

First reaction: "Okay, my prof for Chaucer class mentioned how Terry Jones has a few off-the-wall theories about medieval literature and ideology, but I didn't know he was a hypocritical Muslim-phobic jer--oh, *that* Terry Jones. Riiiight. >.<"

Second reaction: *facepalm*

[dandelion-diva.livejournal.com]

I was *really* confused for a moment, 'cause I thought you were talking about Monty Python's Terry Jones. The idiot pastor has to change his name. Him and Sarah Palin.

I hope there aren't any right-wing assholes named Cleese or Idle in the wings.

I agree with what you said. Now that that's been cleared up. :)