As deeply offensive
Turkey has condemned the burning of a copy of the Quran during a protest in Sweden, describing it as a “vile act”.
Nonsense. It’s just a book. It’s just one copy of a book that’s available in many editions. There must be literally billions of copies of it. Burning one is a gesture; Turkey doesn’t like the gesture; Turkey should get a life.
It said the Swedish government’s decision to allow the protest to go ahead was “completely unacceptable”.
Nonsense. Governments aren’t there to enforce theocratic etiquette toward holy books.
Turkey, which had appealed to Sweden to stop the protest, earlier called off a visit by Sweden’s Defence Minister, Pal Jonson, saying the trip had “lost its significance and meaning”.
It was hoped the trip could dispel Ankara’s objections to the Scandinavian country joining the Nato military alliance. Turkey has so far held up both Sweden and Finland’s Nato applications.
Turkey wants political concessions, including the deportation of critics of its President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Kurds that it claims are terrorists.
Turkey is already a Nato member, which means it can block another country from joining. Sweden and Finland both applied to join Nato after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Great. So a nasty theocratic dictatorship gets to veto two liberal secular countries that want to join Nato. Is there some mechanism by which we can veto Erdogan?
Muslims consider the Quran the sacred word of God and view any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it as deeply offensive.
That’s their problem. It’s perfectly possible to think of the contents of the Quran as “the sacred word of God” while still understanding that one of billions of copies is just one of billions of copies. It’s even possible to see the burning of a copy as rude or even oppressive without losing your shit over it.
Turkey is a majority Muslim country. Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement denouncing the act, which it said happened despite “repeated warnings”.
“Permitting this anti-Islam act, which targets Muslims and insults our sacred values, under the guise of ‘freedom of expression’ is completely unacceptable,” it said.
No it isn’t. Genocide is unacceptable, torture is unacceptable, war crimes are unacceptable. Burning one copy of a widely published religious book is not. Focus on the real. Even believers can do that if they try.
It appears likely that Erdogan is using this to cement his position before the upcoming election. He has also been demanding the extradition of some Kurds who have asylum in Sweden, but whom he considers to be terrorists. As he sees all Kurds, I imagine, who have ever been within half a mile of a gun. Having Turkey a member of NATO has been rather problematic for as long as I can remember. Same for Greece, when they were a military dictatorship. Portugal, too, was hardly a shining democratic beacon back when NATO was formed, yet they were a founding member. But in those days, any country opposed to the Soviet Uniion would be welcomed with open arms. Alliances of this nature tend to work on the principle that our enemies’ enemies are our friends. That is not a safe assumption. But I am rambling. I wonder if it would be better just to dissolve NATO and build a whole new alliance of more like minded partners.
It would be better but I don’t suppose it will ever happen.
It’s not at all likely, no. But there may be other ways to help secure the situation without NATO. One can hope.
Having worked in book publishing, I wonder if Erdogan is aware of the number of copies destroyed during production because of errors in assembling pages, binding, etc.?
Far more than one.
Erdogan is a shit who uses religion to cower people, and Islam has done half his job for him.
David, I was thinking along similar lines. What happens to all the unsold copies? Do they get pulped, like other books do? Or is it like leftover communion wine, which the vicar has to drink? Does someone have to read all the unsold copies before they get pulped?
I don’t know about the Koran, or about unsold copies, but I do remember hearing that there are very specific ways one must dispose of a Bible that has become soiled, or damaged in some way. You can’t just throw it away (which makes me, once again, a sinner, as I have thrown away copies of the Bible).
I suspect people like Erdogan don’t care much about that, or think about it. He just wields a club over anyone who displeases him. Sort of like using some obscure law everyone breaks now and then because no one knows it exists to prosecute someone you dislike (the sodomy law having been used that way a lot). Or, like my bosses, who don’t read our performance evaluations until they want to get rid of us and scour the pages looking for even one little thing they can use. Or who don’t really care if we send personal emails on the computer until they day they want to get rid of us.