It's just a freaking book

With all the stories about "flushing" the Koran, I feel close to screaming. It's a freaking book. A bunch of paper pages with ink scribbles on them. It's one thing if you rip it out of the hands of a believer to "desecrate" it, it's quite another to do so with a copy you own. I'd rather have someone flush their own Koran or burn their own Bible than have them do the same to the trashiest novel someone else has.

Which brings me to this point: If the guards flushed a Koran (and if so, I want that toilet -- it would be better than the low-flow one I have now), it is no big deal (other than telling them to knock it off) if they bought it from Amazon.com. If they grabbed it from the prisoner and flushed it, then that's a different story. I don't go wild and start hunting Muslims because some kook rams a plane into a skyscraper, why in the hell should they start hunting Americans because some moron flushed a Koran?

An addendum: This is the story that refuses to die, so I've decided to write some more (originally posted on Fark).

We really should pay more attention to Muslim sensitivities. Those of us in the more mature parts of the world need to remember the Middle East is inhabited by people who throw childish temper-tantrums if they think someone is making fun of them. One of these days they will grow up to be valuable members of society, but until then we need to do our best to make sure we don't hurt their feelings.

/Sarcasm off.

This was a book they abused, not a person. Just like I don't riot in the streets every time some guy in the Middle East burns an awful cartoon of an American flag, I expect adults in the Middle East not to riot because someone might have done something to a bunch of scribbles on a piece of paper (I'm deliberately being "insensitive" here).

The thing is, I know the vast majority of Muslims aren't going to riot because of something stupid like this. I would guess most of them think that attacking innocent people and burning things is a tad overreacting. Unfortunately, they don't appear to be willing to stand up and tell the nutcases in their midsts that they are acting like spoiled children. I don't doubt that it's real fear on their part, but that doesn't mean I have to sugarcoat what I say just because some fanatic might get upset.

The Koran is just a book. So is the Bible. A person has more inherent worth than either. If you hurt someone because they damaged a thing, then you deserve to be locked away from society. If Allah wants to punish blasphemy, let him, but if someone takes it upon themselves to do so, my personal beliefs force me to taunt them unmercifully.