Something... and Half of Something

The trouble with gods and "holy" books is that often they are locked in eternal combat with one another, hence the difficulty of determining which is actually the Devil and his works and which is the true God.

Within a century, I predict, tiny enclaves of isolated, persecuted Christians will be praying to St. Geert.

I wish we had more politicians like this in America!

Can we get this guy immigrated into this country and weld him into Congress?!?!

Hmm...

I am going to take the opposite view here. I don't think the Koran should be banned.

Read and studied? Perhaps. Flushed, set aflame, immersed in pig urine? Any chance you get.

But banned? I'm a free speech kind of guy.

Incitement to murder is not free speech.

Well Mark...actually it IS. It's just not responsible freedom of speech.

Example:

Someone please murder Osama Bin Laden. Put a bullet in his brain, cut of his nads and shove them in his mouth. While you're at it, please smear Al-Zawahiri with pig dung and light him on fire.

There. I have just (hopefully) incited someone to murder. Should I now be locked up for saying that?

By Mark's reasoning, The Prince by Machiavelli should probably be banned as well. One could loosely reason that it could incite murder as well.

The Koran is not a holy book. In fact, I don't even have an entire copy anymore because I ran out of toilet paper. I have already suggested several alternative uses for one if you don't wish to read it.

Be careful of banning books. The next thing you know, it will be The Bible that gets banned for "hate speech."

I don't know Nigel, I'm torn on the subject.
I wasn't pleased with the banning of writings by Reb Kahane and yet, Mein Kampf is a banned book and I can't be unhappy about that.

I understand why you might be OK with banning Mein Kampf...in Europe. However, I am glad I live in a country that doesn't ban books...at all.

I don't like that "slippery slope" argument in most cases. But in the case of free speech and books, I think it sets a dangerous precedent when you begin banning writings...especially historical writings.

Mein Kampf is historical...as repulsive as the ideas contained in it are. Reading it helps scholars understand Hitler's evil.

Banning the Koran would limit the ability for us to understand why the whack-job Islamists follow the words of a child molester (pork be unto him). And then what? Do you ban the Hadith as well? Ban all Islamic thought?

Banning books is what fascists do. What The Netherlands should do is kick out every single immigrant from Islamic countries...and not allow any more immigration from those countries.

BTW...although I wouldn't go to that extreme here in the US (yet), it wouldn't exactly break my heart if it comes to that.

BTW...good conversation here. I'll try not to descend into the usual inanity like I do over at 6MB...

here's where we descend into my deeply ingrained feelings about islam. I make no secret about it, I firmly believe that islam is the enemy of hope and civilization and all that is good and beautiful in this world.

here's where we descend into my deeply ingrained feelings about islam. I make no secret about it, I firmly believe that islam is the enemy of hope and civilization and all that is good and beautiful in this world.

On that we TOTALLY agree...

Nigel, I said nothing about banning books. It really isn't worth it to me to spend time sorting out the difference between hyperbolic speech and actually encouraging or soliciting the murder of someone. And I do consider those waging war and terrorism against our nation immune from such proscriptions of speech. The law may or may not.

I'm getting sick and tired of islam and muslims. They are the reason for most of the violence worldwide and cannot be dealt with polotically. Therefore, the best thing for planet earth would be the elimination of islam and the sooner the better