Headline of a New York Times story yesterday: "No Intentional Abuse of Koran at Guantanamo, General Says."
Headline of Los Angeles Times story today: "Improper Handling of Koran Confirmed."
Interestingly, both these stories refer to remarks made Thursday by Army Brigadier Gen. Jay W. Hood, military commander at Gitmo.
Several questions:
1. Is there a story here or not?
2. Should Americans acquiesce to Muslim spiritual and cultural taboos regarding handling of the Koran by unbelievers?
3. Isn't it hypocritical for Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees to expect tolerance of their spiritual and cultural taboos when they are so notoriously violent toward the spiritual and cultural taboos of other religions? (Does anyone remember the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan?)
4. And isn't it even more critical for Wahabbists to demand the proper treatment of the Koran when the Wahabbist kingdom of Saudi Arabia routinely desecrates the Korans of pilgrims?
"The Saudi state religion is the primitive and austere Wahhabi version of Islam, which defines many traditional Islamic practices as idolatrous. Notably, the state bans the importation of Korans published elsewhere. When foreign pilgrims arrive at the Saudi border by the millions for the annual journey to Mecca, what happens to the non-Saudi Korans they are carrying? The border guards confiscate them, to be shredded, pulped, or burned. Beautiful bindings and fine paper are viewed as a particular provocation--all are destroyed. (This on top of the spiritual vandalism the Saudis perpetrate, by inserting anti-Jewish and anti-Christian squibs into the Korans they publish in foreign languages, as Stephen Schwartz documented in our issue of September 27, 2004.)" This quote is from The Weekly Standard (05/30/05).
5. Of all the criticisms that can be made about American handling of detainees at Gitmo, does alleged Koran desecration at Gitmo really rise to the level of legitimate outrage? Assuming it even happend?
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
And your answers are?
2 - George P. Wood
1. There is little or no story here.
2. Yes/no. While Americans should be aware of Muslim taboos and should not go out of their way to intentionally defame or offend Muslims, that does not mean they should necessarily observe them either. How, after all, am I supposed to learn about Islam if I (an unbeliever) cannot read the book? America's religious pluralism works precisely because it extends courtesy to people of all faiths or none, asking only that those people do the same.
3. It is absolutely hypocritical for Taliban and Al Qaeda to expect a tolerance they do not extend to others.
4. Saudi Arabia is outrageously hypocritical in this regard. Not only is it intolerant of non-Wahhabist versions of Islam, it forbids and actively persecutes Christians who attempt to hold church services within the kingdom. While most Muslim countries are not that extreme, there is nonetheless an active bias against non-Islamic faiths in those countries. Moreover, in some of those countries, apostasy from Islam or conversion to another religion is a crime. (Paul Marshall has just published a new book, Radical Islam's Rules, that I can't wait to read and review.)
5. I think that alleged Koran desecration at Gitmo has become such a huge issue because of other, far more serious allegations of abuse there. I am more interested in the debate over detainee access to lawyers and to the use of coercive interrogative tactics than I am to whether some Marine inadvertently touched a detainee's Koran. Torturing a man is an abuse of human rights. Flushing his book down the toilet--which doesn't seem to have happened, in any case--hardly rises to that level.
What are your answers?
3 - Temple Stark
It sounds like a cop out - but almost exactly the same as yours - except that the detainees - the vast majority - are not Al Qaeda or Taliban so I don't see the same hypocrisy.
That they are outraged overseas - which may have been your point - well, we don't know if those who are outraged are T or AQ either.
4 - RealCon
Re: Comment 2
1. Is there a story here or not?
If not -- somebody got a lot of press out of it!
2. Should Americans acquiesce to Muslim spiritual and cultural taboos regarding handling of the Koran by unbelievers?
Why not antagonize them?… it’s fun…
3. Isn't it hypocritical for Taliban and Al Qaeda detainees to expect tolerance of their spiritual and cultural taboos when they are so notoriously violent toward the spiritual and cultural taboos of other religions? (Does anyone remember the Taliban's destruction of the Buddhist statues in Bamiyan?)
Yeah -- “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth!”…
4. And isn't it even more critical for Wahabbists to demand the proper treatment of the Koran when the Wahabbist kingdom of Saudi Arabia routinely desecrates the Korans of pilgrims?
I say they should leave our country -- immediately -- and go home!
We’ll just take their oil… and if they don’t start behaving -- we’ll buy our oil elsewhere…
5. Of all the criticisms that can be made about American handling of detainees at Gitmo, does alleged Koran desecration at Gitmo really rise to the level of legitimate outrage?
It's obviously in the eye of the beholder -- let’s just take out their eyes!
5 - gerry
The majority of detainees are not Al Quaeda or Taliban???!!! What?!