One reaction within progressive Muslim circles(and please note the lower-case "p") to the discussion of the desecration of the Qur'an is this:
People are being killed by mobs over alleged desecrations of the Quran.
Is this not an outrage?
Well, people who feel they don't have any dignity left; who have,
in their view, been exploited, oppressed, and marginalized for 8-10 decades and more; the only thing such people have left is their icons and their faith. And then, what happens when something rubs salt in their wounds, I call it a reaction. I offer you a quote from Sherif Feisal Bin Hussain via TE Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") as a call to compassion based on empathy on all sides of this discussion:
"...either forced good or forced evil will make a people cry with pain. Does the ore admire the flame which transforms it? There is no reason for offence, but a people too weak are clamant over their little own. Our race will have a cripple's temper till it has found its feet."
[Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Chapter IV.]
As a lot of people have said, especially since 9/11 till we are blue--this is not to justify the outrage, which I completely agree it is--but, to use the language of today, to show you where folks be coming from.
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A related article speared in The Hindu, about the way Newsweek has, and had been, blowing up news unnecessarily and out of proportion.
http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/23/stories/2005052301611000.htm
It seems Newsweek played quite a role in making people believe about the presence of "WMD" in Iraq, before the US invaded Iraq.
The article also quotes some daunting figures when it reads: "... over half a million Iraqi children who died in the 1990s as a result of sanctions against that nation."
Now, what would you think when you read Newsweek the next time round?
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