Sweden struggles to handle the fallout from Quran-burning protests
www.euronews.com
A series of government-authorised protests have put questions of free speech and Swedish identity up for grabs, while the government warns national security is under threat.
  • rab@lemmy.ca
    305·
    1 year ago

    One has a right to burn any book they own.

    If that offends you, perhaps it’s not the country for you

      • chatokun@lemmy.world
        3·
        1 year ago

        Burning books like this requires enough targeted hatred and a need to offend the targets. It also is usually more effective if your target is a minority (not specifically racial, just a much weaker target), as that bolsters your position of power and lessens the likelihood of retaliation.

        Atheists sometimes have that much hatred, but at least where I am Christianity isn’t small enough to be a minority, so the fear of backlash might be holding back some of the hatred type atheists.

        Another reason may depend on why someone became an atheists. Many of us don’t hate religious people directly, we just have issues with what organized religion gets away with. People like me came to this conclusion by comparing scientific evidence to blind faith. By nature, faith will be more emotional and reactionary, whereas if you come to a position after learning and changing yourself, you’re more open to understanding why it’s not really a good idea to hate like that.

        Though I’d call myself agnostic vs an atheist.

        • masquenox@lemmy.ml
          1·
          1 year ago

          Burning books like this requires enough targeted hatred and a need to offend the targets.

          In other words… white supremacists can’t mainstream their ideology by burning Bibles.

        • masquenox@lemmy.ml
          21·
          1 year ago

          I have heard of black metal. I have also heard black metal itself - I think I’ve heard elevator music that’s less boring than black metal.

    • bstix@feddit.dkEnglish
      918·
      1 year ago

      That’s an easy take.

      Let’s play with the idea. It’s legal to burn photographs.

      Now imagine if your child died in a horrible way. Someone then comes up to you and burns a photograph of your child in front of you. It’s perfectly legal, but you’d probably be less cool about it. But hey, perhaps this isn’t a country for you? No, it’s obviously a shitty thing to do because it’s a deliberate action to trigger to you. (Shit like that has actually happened.)

      The book burning idiots could go buy as many Korans as they like and have a mighty bonfire in their backyard and no one would bat an eye, but that’s not what they do. They go in front of the embassies of the countries that they want to provoke, call the press for coverage and post it everywhere so people can see how brave and free they are, hiding in the safety of free speech.

      If they actually have anything to say to the religious leaders, they should go fucking say it to them. They don’t. Because they know there’d be very real consequences if they did it in Iran. They aren’t brave enough to do that.

      I don’t give a shit about the importance of religion or bonfires, but I am pissed that these idiots are abusing the freedom of speech to spread hatred. They don’t want to burn books because they like fire. They do these “protests” because they’re racist assholes who want Muslims to feel unwelcome.

      With freedom comes a responsibility. They aren’t being responsible with it.