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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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The book falling out of a bag on its own is nothing big and certainly not deserving of the extreme response it got, but an extreme response it did get which makes me suspect that the child was told to bring the Quran to school by his "friends" so they could do something nefarious to it, and they were caught before they could begin their act.

This religious community's calling card is an extreme response to nothing. And pure speculation, belied by the article :

A boy had taken the Quran to school last week and given it to another pupil who read out passages on the tennis court, according to Akef Akbar, a councillor who is working with the school. He said the book was later taken inside, where it fell on the floor before being put in a pupil’s bag.

In any event, it would be nothing to apologize for, burning the coran is a public service at this point.

When he made up his religion, muhammad took care not to declare artifacts holy, so no one could do to him what he did to the little statues of the old gods of mecca. Thankfully, his flock has not followed his lead in this matter, so anticlericals have a clean attack angle. It should be burning on public television constantly, giving muslims a chance to return to the True Islam.

The local imam said that anyone who resorted to threats “is not truly following the teaching of Islam”. He added that Muslims would not tolerate disrespect of the Quran.

No threats, just the violence I guess. OK

One could argue that all religions’ calling cards are extreme responses to nothing…

Even the Jains?

Do you think not eating onions or garlic, because they must have some rudimentary consciousness, because they live through multiple seasons, is not an extreme response to nothing? Not to mention all the other insane behaviors designed to prevent the accumulation of negative karma.

I’m actually not familiar with the spiritual doctrine of the Jains. I’d imagine they, too, have built elaborate castles of abstraction on no worldly evidence.