{"id":4652,"date":"2010-09-08T19:28:37","date_gmt":"2010-09-08T19:28:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=4652"},"modified":"2010-09-08T19:40:20","modified_gmt":"2010-09-08T19:40:20","slug":"a-misunderstanding-of-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/a-misunderstanding-of-civility\/","title":{"rendered":"A misunderstanding of civility"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tnr.com\/blog\/jonathan-chait\/77529\/the-koran-burning-very-wrong-the-koran-burning-not-the-end-civilization\">The New Republic<\/a> a writer is confused that a professor of Islamic Studies in Delaware would <a href=\"http:\/\/newsweek.washingtonpost.com\/onfaith\/panelists\/muqtedar_khan\/2010\/09\/the_quran_burning_sign_of_things_to_come.html?hpid=topnews\">say this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Along with the idea of God and prophets, the Quran is the thing that Muslims hold the dearest. My children have been listening to it since even before they were born. I use to recite it to them while they were still in the womb. Their children will be reciting it to them when they will be lowered in to their tomb. Believe me, there is nothing more precious to Muslims than the Quran, and watching people toss it into fire, will be horrifying.<strong> I would rather burn in fire myself, than watch a Quran burn.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am amazed at how millions of Americans who are decent and honorable can watch this happen. No matter how ugly the act the Constitution permits this, is not an acceptable excuse. The Constitution does not permit this. <strong>The Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment. For Muslims this is worse than torture.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>This is kind of weird coming from someone with Western values, but totally in keeping with someone espousing values which are normal in the Muslim world. Muslims do revere the Koran and Muhammed in a manner which is hard to understand for someone with a Western background. Unfortunately for Muslims if they move to a majority non-Muslim Western society their values are simply out of step, and they need to adjust. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/09\/06\/us\/06muslims.html?pagewanted=print\">American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Some American Muslims said they were especially on edge as the anniversary of 9\/11 approaches. The pastor of a small church in Florida has promised to burn a pile of Korans that day. Muslim leaders are telling their followers that the stunt has been widely condemned by Christian and other religious groups and should be ignored. <strong>But they said some young American Muslims were questioning how they could simply sit by and watch the promised desecration.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>If they&#8217;re American, they&#8217;ll counter-protest. There are more options than sitting &amp; watching and violence &amp; intimidation. That&#8217;s one of the things which Western societies learned during and after the Englightenment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At The New Republic a writer is confused that a professor of Islamic Studies in Delaware would say this: Along with the idea of God and prophets, the Quran is the thing that Muslims hold the dearest. My children have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/a-misunderstanding-of-civility\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[50],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4652"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4655,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4652\/revisions\/4655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}