Holy smoke! Literally...

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I'm not into this sort of thing and I generally find it distasteful, but within the context of the present recent news, the following article cracked me up.

Equal opportunity blasphemy.

Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'

An Australian lawyer, Alex Stewart, has smoked pages torn from the Koran and the Bible, posting the video on YouTube just days after an American Pastor's threat to burn the Muslim holy book caused worldwide outrage.

September 13, 2010

Telegraph

From the article:

In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran – which burns best?" Mr Stewart, who works for the Queensland University of Technology, holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages.

At one stage he inhales deeply from one of the roll-ups before blowing out the smoke and commenting: "Holy".

The video, which has since been deleted, was posted on the video-sharing site over the weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

. . .

Mr Stewart, a member of an atheist group in Brisbane, has begun a period of leave following a meeting with his employers today. He insists he wasn't smoking drugs in the video but had sprinkled grass cuttings into the rolled up pages.

. . .

Islamic groups urged Muslims not to react to the provocation.

What about Christian reaction to the provocation?

Michael

[Selene]

I'm not into this sort of thing and I generally find it distasteful, but within the context of the present recent news, the following article cracked me up.

Equal opportunity blasphemy.

Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'

An Australian lawyer, Alex Stewart, has smoked pages torn from the Koran and the Bible, posting the video on YouTube just days after an American Pastor's threat to burn the Muslim holy book caused worldwide outrage.

September 13, 2010

Telegraph

From the article:

In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran – which burns best?" Mr Stewart, who works for the Queensland University of Technology, holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages.

At one stage he inhales deeply from one of the roll-ups before blowing out the smoke and commenting: "Holy".

The video, which has since been deleted, was posted on the video-sharing site over the weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

. . .

Mr Stewart, a member of an atheist group in Brisbane, has begun a period of leave following a meeting with his employers today. He insists he wasn't smoking drugs in the video but had sprinkled grass cuttings into the rolled up pages.

. . .

Islamic groups urged Muslims not to react to the provocation.

What about Christian reaction to the provocation?

Michael

Probably laughter...after they finished praying for his soul!

There seems to exist a significant difference in reaction to common events between the two (2) religions.

Secondly, his real hate crime was leaving out the Torah!

Adam

[anthony]

I'm not into this sort of thing and I generally find it distasteful, but within the context of the present recent news, the following article cracked me up.

Equal opportunity blasphemy.

Australian lawyer smokes pages of Bible and Koran, asking 'Which is best?'

An Australian lawyer, Alex Stewart, has smoked pages torn from the Koran and the Bible, posting the video on YouTube just days after an American Pastor's threat to burn the Muslim holy book caused worldwide outrage.

September 13, 2010

Telegraph

From the article:

In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran – which burns best?" Mr Stewart, who works for the Queensland University of Technology, holds up the two religious texts before ripping them apart and lighting the rolled up pages.

At one stage he inhales deeply from one of the roll-ups before blowing out the smoke and commenting: "Holy".

The video, which has since been deleted, was posted on the video-sharing site over the weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

. . .

Mr Stewart, a member of an atheist group in Brisbane, has begun a period of leave following a meeting with his employers today. He insists he wasn't smoking drugs in the video but had sprinkled grass cuttings into the rolled up pages.

. . .

Islamic groups urged Muslims not to react to the provocation.

What about Christian reaction to the provocation?

Michael

Probably laughter...after they finished praying for his soul!

There seems to exist a significant difference in reaction to common events between the two (2) religions.

Secondly, his real hate crime was leaving out the Torah!

Adam

No! The Torah!

Then he'd definitely get stoned.

[Darrell Hougen]

Interesting.

After seeing your post, I decided to see if I could find the video on youtube. I didn't find the original, but there were videos that featured excerpts from the original. In addition, I found more koran/quran buring videos. Here is one with German music.

The authors were apparently afraid to show their identity.

Here is another that was apparently created as a protest to the oppressive government of Iran.

Here is a website explaining why the person involved decided to burn the Quran. It is written in both English and Persian.

So it begins.

In my view, burning one's own copy of a book should not be viewed as a big deal. If a person disagrees with the contents of the book and wants to show his (or her) displeasure, then it is his right to burn it. Moreover, if it were common, then no one would think it was particularly important. Conversely, the Pastor in Florida was probably right to decide not to burn the Koran as it was becoming an international incident and endangering U.S. troops stationed abroad.

Darrell

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Shayne put these on another thread, but I think a copy here is good to keep the thing on one place.

http://www.telegraph...ch-is-best.html

Youtube video pulled, world outraged at the philistine lack of respect for political-correctness fascism. I did find this:

Shayne

Here's the original, I wonder if Youtube censored or if the person submitting pulled it:

http://fiveaa.com.au...nd-koran_106508

[9thdoctor]

Here's another cute one:

[Darrell Hougen]

That's hysterical.

Darrell

[9thdoctor]

That's hysterical.

It's really not too different from the suggestion I made here:

http://www.objectivistliving.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=9184&view=findpost&p=107183