WHAT HAVE WE OURSELVES DONE?

The Associated Press:

U.S. military officials say no guard at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects flushed a detainee's Quran down the toilet, but they disclosed that a Muslim holy book was splashed with urine. In other newly disclosed incidents, a detainee's Quran was deliberately kicked and another's was stepped on.

On March 25, a detainee complained to guards that "urine came through an air vent" and splashed on him and his Quran. A guard admitted he was at fault, but a report released Friday evening offering new details about Quran mishandling incidents did not make clear whether the guard intended the result.

In another confirmed incident, water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet, and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran. . .

Now that I've finally stopped laughing, I've had a chance to consider this. (By the way, spare us the "Quran" stuff. It's the Koran. For English speakers, for example, it's Germany not "Deutschland". If they give it any thought at all, what do jihadists call the Bible? Probably "Ashes".)

To begin with, these men are the enemy. Claiming water or even urine might have hit a book? A "two word obscenity" was written inside one? Oh, please: These men are lucky they aren't dead. (Indeed, the mind boggles. Incidentally, obscenity by who's definition? Considering what's shown on TV today, NOTHING is off limits anymore.)

So, I feel it is completely unnecessary to argue or worry about the treatment of someone else's book based on what enemy who claim to subscribe to it consider "inappropriate boundaries of its handling". I am especially indifferent when most of those same people who claim to be most upset by such a "violation" of their prescribed "boundaries" are those who also think slicing the heads off captives is terrific.

As a good Jeffersonian who believes in the right of anyone to worship one god, or twenty, or no god at all, I do absolutely respect the right of others to worship their god as they see fit.

However, myself not being a Muslim I don't own a Koran in full because, to be honest, I don't believe a word of it; it means no more to me than does "Alice In Wonderland". And I presume I still do have that right not to believe it, and have not thereby also symbolically "mishandled" the Koran simply because I choose to view it as untrue.

Don't snicker. For how long will we be permitted to think such aloud? Consider how little outcry we have heard about the need to hold someone "accountable" about the "mishandling" of thousand year old Buddhist statues; the ransack and blowing up of Christian churches; the slaughter of Jews at Passover dinners; the slicing of the throats of flight attendants and flight crews and then the crashing of those hijacked planeloads of people into buildings while the hijackers proclaimed how their "God is Great!" (supposedly); and even the butchering of other Muslims and the blowing up of countless Korans while blowing up mosques. The sorry list could go on. But, you see, when the enemy asserts that there has been a "mishandling" of their Koran and don't like that . . . well, those charges must be investigated fully because such "mistreatment" is just beyond the pale, dammit!

Don't think you can hide. We all have reason to be concerned. As I think about it, I do own quite a few books that have Koranic quotations, etc. Presumably, my "mishandling" anything that even references the Koran is not appropriate either.

Uh, oh. I remember how, years ago, I accidently bent the cover of my old "Understanding Islam" book. In addition, a history of medieval Europe book I owned (which had a whole chapter on Islam, that included quotes from the Koran) accidently had at least on one occasion ended up with Oreo bits falling between pages. I have also boxed many other books from time to time, and a few years ago even sent a bunch surface mail between the U.S. and Britain. Clearly, they were left on some boat somewhere, and probably had other books boxed and piled on top. They probably got a bit coldish and maybe were even exposed to water in which fish urinate. And if shipped by air at any time, inappropriate food might have been on board the aircraft. And, come to think of it, there are toilets on planes also -- and just a short distance away. The horrors.

You've probably done the same. That makeshift doorstop in your dorm you thought that beat up Western civ book would be good for? So, watch it: the media and the investigators will be coming for us all eventually. . .  ¶ by Robert, Sunday, June 05, 2005