New in PJ Media:
Should the public burning of the Qur’an be allowed? Should the public burning of the holy scriptures of any religious tradition be allowed? Swedish authorities have recently come up with a novel answer to these questions, an answer that is certain to cause them more problems than it will solve.
Book burning is generally associated with a brutish war against human knowledge and enlightenment and conjures up images of sweaty, fiendishly grinning National Socialists standing before bonfires of books that challenged their evil ideology. The Danish activist Rasmus Paludan and others in Europe, however, have begun burning the Qur’an in various places as a demonstration of their opposition to jihad violence and Sharia oppression of women, and in order to take a stand against those who are demanding that the West curtail the freedom of expression in order to conform to Sharia blasphemy laws.
The Qur’an-burning protesters are out of business for the time being in Sweden, however, as the Swedish police, which quite recently allowed the burnings on the grounds of free expression, have just banned public burnings of the Islamic holy book. Sweden is under heavy pressure from the government of Turkey, which is opposing its membership in NATO unless it abandons the freedom of speech. So goodbye, freedom of speech. The retreat is not total, however: burning the scriptures of other religions, however, is still perfectly legal. In making this distinction, Swedish authorities have embarked upon an extremely dangerous path.
The Swedish-language news outlet SVT reported Thursday that in the last few days, “two applications for Qur’an burnings have been denied.” Police spokesperson Ola Österling was unequivocal: “As a rule in Stockholm, we will not allow burning the Qur’an during public gatherings.” Some say that the police ban on Qur’an burnings violates the protection of the freedom of expression in the Swedish constitution, and Österling says that the police welcome this challenge: “We want to have it tested that our reasoning is legal. We are aware that it is a restriction on freedom of expression. And in order to be able to make decisions about restrictions on freedom of expression, which is a constitutionally protected freedom and right, it is required that it is stated in law.” So the police rule could be struck down, but in light of Sweden’s desire to enter NATO, this is unlikely.
The denials came because, according to Österling, the burnings “could evoke, partly on site but also in a Swedish context, a threat to Swedish interests and to Swedish society.” What kind of threat? Would the Qur’an burners, having disposed of the book, turn their torches to public buildings?
There is more. Read the rest here.
Samer says
The German philosopher Nietzsche was right when he described Christianity as the religion of the weak slaves rather than the religion of the powerful masters. The time has come to change the culture of the present Western societies so that they become the culture of the powerful masters, before Islamic barbarism can gradually take over European societies.
Wellington says
No, Samer, Nietzsche was not correct. Western Civilization, which is easily the greatest civilization of all time, is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition and a major part of why the West achieved what it did. Even skeptics of Christianity like Voltaire and Jefferson grasped this. But you don’t.
Reconsider, that is if you are able. And to hell with “powerful masters,” a la some Platonic elitism. I’ll take the democracy of the common man, imbued with common sense, native intelligence and an in-built proper moral code, over “powerful masters” any day of the week.
Yours is not a recipe for liberty but rather a prescription for rule by the few. To Hell with rule by the few. Your turn if you care.
gravenimage says
*Fine* post, Wellington. There is nothing I can add.
And Samir, this from Sweden is *not* Christian. There is nothing intrinsic in Christianity that kowtows to Islam. In fact, Christians stood as a bulwark against Islam for centuries.
BRITISH BULL DOG 1950 says
Wellington.♥️👍
Kepha says
Agreed, Wellington.
Nietzsche also ended up addled with drugs and STD’s, embracing the horse that hauled the garbage wagon as his brother. After all, like 99.97% of all males of all mammalian, reptilian, avian, amphibian, and not a few piscene species, he discovered he wasn’t the all-conquering world beater he’d set out to be, and could never reconcile himself to that fact.
Further, Christian morality (and I recognize that Judaism is the seedbed from which my religion grew) is no slave morality. It is the morality of people who have been made truly free from the law of sin and death through the atoneing sacrifice and resurrection of Christ. It hs a very ancient perspective on things, recognizing that the boastful Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezars, and Neroes (the real Beast 666) come and go, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
Kepha says
Samer, Nietzsche was one of the people who demoralized the Western world very thoroughly. While I’d say that if there is no God, perhaps Nietzsche was wiser than Marx, but, as a Christian, I see both of those men as damned fools–and I do not use the word “damned” lightly.
Cseslaw Milosz, a Pole who resisted both the Fascist and Communist forms of 20th century totalitarianism (the slave ideologies par excellence in their worship of and slavishness towards brute power) observed, re reading the Gospels in Greek, that one re-learns the value of speech in doing so, and discovers words far more enduring than those engraved in stone.
While the national church of Sweden calls itself Lutheran, Martin Luther would roll over in his grave to see what it has become–cowardly in affirming its own Scriptures, ridden by every intellectual fad to arise, and craven towards Islamic babarians.
Christopher Cook says
What would they do to an amerikan, me if I burned one and uploaded the video to YT?
Sounds like an attention grabbing hack. The religion of pedophiles.
libertyORdeath says
I bet one of the globohomos could burn the quran in Sweden with no problem…he could just say its a protest against “homophobia”
I bet an inhabitant of Sweden of Africa origin could burn a quran with no issues…he could just claim its a protest against the Arab slave trade of Sub-Saharan Africans (which is still ongoing)
But a white male Swede could never get away with burning a quran to protest the antisemitism, the support of killing “infidels”, the religious abuse of women and girls, the support for child marriage, the hijrah to take vengeance on Western nations, the religiously sanctioned rape and abuse of Swedish boys, girls and women, or the countless passages in support of jihad terror and shariah oppression.
tgusa says
When their unfriendly guests start burning Swedish authorities should I care? My survey says no. The below quote exemplifies where the Swedish authorities (giggle) stand today.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself you are certain in every battle to be in peril. Sun Tzu.
I have learned to tolerate some things but tolerating damned idiots is a bridge too far.
gravenimage says
Sweden Bans Burning the Qur’an, but Burning the Scriptures of Other Religions Is OK
……………………………………….
Just appalling–but who can be surprised?
ed says
Solution:
burn a quran and a bible at the same time
ed says
Don’t burn your copy of the quran
You never know when you might run out of toilet paper
NoLibsWelcomeHere says
Stop it. Your butt deserves better.
NoLibsWelcomeHere says
A while back, the terrorists at the terror organization CAIR were giving away free terror guides. We were able to amass quite a few of them, and while we don’t usually burn them (the odor mostly), they work well as targets for Israeli made IMI ammunition. Despite it being Israeli, they can be coated with pig sauce before firing into the terror guides. We also use them to line the bird cage, and shredded into the hamster cage. Strangely, the cats won’t use litter boxes that are lined with its pages, as cats are very clean animals, and the terror guide is scene as feces.
Kepha says
I now know there’s a reason why I’ve always liked cats.
Walter Sieruk says
One reason in the nation of Sweden that the lawmaker of that country, in an action of appeasement to Muslims, have made in illegal for it’s citizens to burn the Qu ‘ran is because when many Muslims feel offended engage in violent and destructive temper tantrums.
In contrast Bible burning is legal in Sweden because when Christian are are offended by seeing Bible burning don’t have violent and destructive tantrums, as much as they dislike observing Bible’s being put into a fire.
To explain this in another way, the governing authorities of Sweden have banned the burning of the Qu ‘ran because they have come to realize that many Muslims will “snap-out” in a violent rage if the Qu ‘ran is burned as a symbolic statement against Islamic terrorism
Actually ,”snapping out in violent rage ” because of a Qu ‘ran burning sort of ironically does prove the connection that main “holy book” of Islam and Muslims acting out in violence.
In is in contrast to the civilized behavior of Christians then they discover about a group that burns Bible’s.
For example , when the members of the violent Marxist organization called “Black Lives Matter” gather together and burn Bible’s in public , Christians don’t like it but they understand and know that God is and will be able to handle it , Romans 14:12. Galatians 6:7. Therefore Christians don’t become violent as Muslim do when they are offended .
The difference between Christianity and Islamic is vastly different.