Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Who needs better "understanding"?

The BBC today reports on the fact that Americans are snapping up Korans, reportedly out of a desire to better understand Islam.
CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] is requesting Muslims all over the
world to sponsor free copies for those who wish to improve their knowledge of
the book.
I suppose it can be a good thing for non-Muslims to better understand Muslims, but it strikes me that CAIR could do a lot more good if it urged Muslims to better understand and accept non-Muslims. Afterall, it is Muslims who are waging a holy war against the rest of us, not vice-versa.

BTW, I should mention that the BBC article, in putting the story into the context of Korangate at Guantanamo, does a fairly good and even-handed job. It accurately describes the reported incidents as "mishandling" rather than "desecration", and includes the fact that the Pentagon report detailed both detainee and guard "mishandling". Small things, true, but like a baby saying its first words, such rare things can be cause for great excitement. (The report, being unattributed, might also be a wire report rather than a BBC report, which could help explain its failure to demonize America.)

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