❊ Why The US Authorities Shouldn’t Ban The Koran Burners

Before reading the title and sending me hate mail, let me make my position clear from the outset: I’m a proud Muslim and I don’t support the burning of the Koran. In fact I explained my position in a previous post.

In this post, I just want to talk a little bit about why it would be a bad idea, from a pragmatic point of view, to prevent determined Koran burners from doing their thing by force.

If for some reason the American authorities decided to ban one man and a handful of his supporters from physically burning the Koran, the reaction to the ban will be worse than the burning itself, especially in today’s Internet and media landscape.

Hundreds of hooded people would make anonymous home-made Koran-burning videos in protest and upload them on Youtube, complete with dramatic graphics about “Evil Islam” and the like. That would create an online viral sensation that will generate millions and millions of international views.

In other words, the net effect of a ban would be an increase in the amount of people in Pakistan and Egypt who witness the blasphemous bonfire. We don’t want that. So if the crazy pastor can’t be persuaded amicably from stopping, just hold your noses and let him do his thing..

Update: Fortunately, the event was cancelled. But I don’t expect this to go away.

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Note: Posts with titles starting with an ❊ (asterisk) are my opinion posts. I used this system to separate long posts from quick links and comments.