Recently Pastor Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Centre announced that his church would be celebrating “Burn the Koran Day” on September 11th 2010 in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks.
This issue has given rise to a lot of controversy and has been covered by almost all major news agencies. I think this issue is important enough for me to write a few paragraphs on it.
Burning the Koran is not only counterproductive but also dangerous. It is dangerous not only because it will most likely lead to a lash-back from fundamentalist Muslims, but because it will help in the creation of many more fundamentalist Jihadists which is the last thing our world needs.
Islam is an oppressive, violent and sexist religion
In my opinion Islam is an oppressive, violent and sexist religion, however the way to combat it is not by burning the Koran which millions of Muslims worship and follow blindly without ever having read it.
In order to combat the dangers posed by Islam let’s encourage Muslims to actually read the Koran in their own language and to understand it. How many women who actually read the Koran and understand it will keep on worshipping it and making excuses for the sexism and violence that exists in this book?
I am a strong believer in “if you want to fight against something, first learn everything you can about it.” That’s the only way to fight against evil.
If before the Revolution in Iran in 1979 the Shah had allowed people to read the “Resaleh of Khomeini” instead of outlawing this book, I think today Iran would be in a much different state. After the Revolution once people started reading Khomeini’s Resaleh and realized the type of garbage that was written in it, they started to realize what a huge mistake they had made by supporting him.
If there are campaigns to burn the Koran it will increase the sympathy towards it and it will give a greater excuse to Islamic Government such as the Islamic Regime and Islamic entities such as Al-Qaeda to recruit even more Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists. All they have to say is “look the west is burning the Koran, Islam is in danger” and ignorant people who have never read the Koran will line up to defend Islam and kill innocent people while doing it.
Instead let’s encourage Muslims to read the Koran and challenge them to defend the violence, oppression and sexism which is strongly promoted in this book.
Down with the Islamic Regime
Long Live Freedom in Iran
