Burning Books for Fun

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A top Muslim cleric in Indian Kashmir called on Thursday for books by Salman Rushdie to be burned and said Britain had to apologise for awarding the author a knighthood.

A small protest also saw some 200 Muslim youths chant "Death to Rushdie" and "Down with Britain" as they torched effigies of the Indian-born British author, accused of blasphemy against Islam in his 1998 book The Satanic Verses.

"I urge the Queen and her government to withdraw the award and also apologise to the Muslim world for conferring the knighthood title on Rushdie, as it has hurt Muslim sentiments," Grand Mufti Bashir-u-Din said in a statement.

He also urged governments around the world to ban Rushdie's books and called on Kashmiri Muslims to burn them, arguing that Rushdie was still "liable to be killed for rendering gravest injury."

Rushdie was sentenced to death in a 1989 fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Iran's late supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. from IOL

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If you want to live in a world where books are banned for expressing ideas out of favor with religious leaders, consider moving to a Moslem country ruled by Islamic law. If you want to see persons accused of blasphemy condemend to death by religious Fatwa, Islam is the religion for you. If you believe in freedom of thought and expression, you perhaps should be concerned about the increasing militancy of 1.2 billion Moslems in the 21st century.

bobcat

Comments

J.D. Kessler said…
Would you authorize black ops to target clerics throughout the world? Or would the blow back be worse than the statement.
7:19 AM
Bob Cat said…
Hahaha! Of course not. That would make me as bad or worse than the clerics. I prefer to wage my battles in the free exchange of ideas. I seek to persuade others, not to kill them.
2:03 PM
J.D. Kessler said…
Are you sure? I'm not.
2:09 PM
Bob Cat said…
I'll kill you for saying that. (joke)

Relax. I am quite harmless. To start with, I do not believe that I will be transported instantly to paradise if I murder someone with whom I have a theological disagreement.

But perhaps I do suffer a bit from Islamaphobia.

b
7:51 PM
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