Why burn the entire Koran?

By Stu Tarlowe

It seems to me that the church in Gainesville planning to burn Korans on 9/11 is making a big mistake. They have been denounced as stupid, insensitive, and crude, and these criticisms are correct. But if one accepts that it is OK to destroy holy texts (the US destroyed Holy Bibles in Afghanistan, after all), and the demonstrators want to make a point, they should confine themselves to burning only those parts of the Koran that are hateful to other religions or to infidels in general, or those chapters that instruct how infidels are worthy only of being converted, enslaved or killed.

They could burn just those pages that command all Muslims to wage jihad, killing the infidel wherever he can be found, by whatever means available, in order to further Islam's goal of world domination. Or the parts that order Muslims to kill any fellow Muslim who renounces Islam.

Oh, and they could also burn those parts of the Koran which dictate a particular hatred for Jews, calling them pigs and monkeys. And the parts that tell how, if a Jew is hiding behind a tree or a rock, the tree or rock should say, "O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me; come and kill him!"

And of course, they could burn only the parts of the Koran on which the most brutal aspects of Sharia law are based, like the stoning to death of women accused of adultery, or the "honor killings" of women by their own families.

And they could burn those parts of the Koran that instruct how women are to be treated like property, and how they can be beaten by their husbands, and how women's bodies should be mutilated, and how a man can have multiple wives, some of them, like Mohammed's, as young as 9 years old.

But there is certainly no need to burn all those many parts of the Most Holy Koran that promote peace and happiness, and that preach respect and tolerance for the other religions of the world, and coexistence with those other religions. There's no need to burn those many parts of the Koran which describe a loving, forgiving god who inspires his worshippers to go forth and spread his love among their neighbors and the rest of the world.

There is no need to burn the all the parts of the Koran that exhort Muslims to respect the sensitivities of others, and to cherish life. Those parts of the Koran should certainly be spared from the flames.