myspace: video of Koran shot up, then left in front of mosque...FBI called in

WindNoSail

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

That's the question.

Ask yourself, if someone took your holy book, shot it full of holes, and then threw it on your front porch would you consider it a threat?

Especially considering who this is coming from (dude has a website even :rolleyes: ) i think in this situation it's definetly an aggressive, violent act and a threat.

I think that is what would push it from an act by a stupid person, but a protected act, to a hate crime. Personally, since I am not a Muslim there is no reason for me to abide by their religious laws, unless it threatens them as individuals and their free right to worship as they please. But they can't make me respect their religious laws, by either fear or threat or legal standing. And I stand by that.

Pearl Jam and toast

WindNoSail wrote:

I think that is what would push it from an act by a stupid person, but a protected act, to a hate crime.

I agree.

windnosail wrote:

Personally, since I am not a Muslim there is no reason for me to abide by their religious laws, unless it threatens them as individuals and their free right to worship as they please. But they can't make me respect their religious laws, by either fear or threat or legal standing. And I stand by that.

Obviously i agree with you but what did that have to do with anything?

DixieN

jeffbr wrote:

Would burning a flag be equal or less of an issue than burning a Koran? I'm trying to understand the line people see. I've already agreed that a bullet-riddled Koran crosses the line. But since most here support flag burning as a form of speech I was trying to determine if Koran burning was also a form of speech. Both are symbolic of other things, but in the end both are just cloth and paper respectively. Yet I fear some here would advocate Koran burning be labeled a hate crime (whatever that is).

I don't really understand the burning of books. You can't make the ideas go away by burning the books, any more than you can make portions of US policy go away by burning a flag. It's your right to protest what is in the books, I guess or what you believe is represented by a colored piece of cloth. Even though I don't really understand the burning of books and flags except as symbolic gestures, I do understand that there's a line you cross when you take a flag or Quran or Bible and shoot it repeatedly and leave it as a calling card at a "sacred" location, such as a church, a mosque, etc. The line you have crossed is one that goes from saying, "I dislike these ideas," to "I hate your ideas enough that I hate you personally--this book is first, you could be next." If someone burns a flag in the town square, it's a rather abstract statement that you don't like something about policy. If someone burns a flag and leaves it on a serviceman's door, it's a personal statement and very likely a direct threat. When you threaten someone or a threaten a group directly/specifically based based solely on their membership in a group, you've moved into hate crime territory. There's the difference. Burn all the Qurans and Bibles you want, so long as you do it legally. It's freedom of speech, however much I may not like it. Dump those burned books on a mosque or church, and you are engaging in behavior that is designed to frighten and intimidate. As such, it is somewhere in hate crime territory in my mind.