Tuesday, February 28, 2012

This Just In--Frenzy in Afghanistan Over Torched Korans is NOT About Religion

So claims Hamida Gafour in a Globe and Mail op-ed piece. She writes:
These protests are not really about religion, as offensive as it is to burn any holy book. They’re about poor, disenfranchised people expressing anger over lack of progress and security and finding an easy vehicle for that rage.
Futhermore:
The image of burned holy texts is not only deeply offensive to religious Muslims but a symbol of the terrible injustices that ordinary Afghans face as they struggle to live under horrific circumstances.
Why can't it be both--poor, disenfranchised religious Muslims who despise the kafir "occupier" finding an easy vehicle for their rage when they learn about some accidentally incinerated holy books? And surely whatever this episode is about, it is about religion--a supremacist religion which requires complete, unthinking submission, and which can therefore engender the kind of frenzied behaviour currently on display.

Update: As always, the real story is in the comments (and on the whole, G&M readers aren't buying the no-Islam-to-see-here tripe that Hamida is selling).

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