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Protesters storm Swedish embassy in Baghdad, set it on fire over planned Koran burning
(www.france24.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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I'm not a believer, but I'd say that the holy book of one of the biggest religions on the planet is rather important in the global context. It's literally one of the major ethical foundation of over two billion people or at least a big part of these believers.
So like it or no, it matters on the geo political scale. It certainly matters enough to some people to actually storm an embassy over a perceived great insult. Now if that's a good thing that so many people take it that seriously is another question. I for one don't like that, but that doesn't make it go away.
It's not a friendly act, but should it be banned? Sweden also allows you to burn a bible. Also not a friendly act, but should it be banned? Why sacrifice our freedom to appease religious zealots? We also used to have them in Europe. Our right to burn a bible was not God-given, it took centuries to conquer and is not even legal everywhere.
Now, again, it's not a friendly gesture, for sure, I wouldn't do it, but I like to know that I could do it without being arrested, because why should anyone being arrested for burning a book they bought? People are not arrested for burning gallons of fuel while driving SUVs and that I find easier to argue for.
I didn't argue for either way. I'm just pointing out the importance of this specific book and that obviously we should be aware of potential consequences. It certainly sucks that some people take their religion so seriously to injure or kill other people, but it's really not unexpected nor unprecedented.
So if Sweden does allow the burning, which does have it's pros and cons, then they have to consider the ramification they could face. That of course should include taking the security of their embassies in extreme religious countries into consideration. Not sure what they did in that regard, but it certainly wasn't enough.
It's very easy to sit behind anonymity and argue for the importance of allowing such freedom of expression when we aren't the ones put in danger because of it.
I think Sweden, and Denmark for that matter, are very well aware of the potential violence this unleashes, they've been suffering quite a few attacks against their embassies in recent years for jokes, cartoons or quran burnings.
And yes, it's easy for me to say this behind anonymity. I live in Brussels and wouldn't be speaking so easily under my own name. Which says a lot about the degradation of freedom to express your opinions about religion without fearing for your security in Europe today. So yeah, I don't want to lose that freedom. Better to close the embassies in Iraq.
Again, I wouldn't burn a quran. But do I think it's a sacred book above criticism? No, I absolutely do not.