Via Friendly Atheist “Interview with Pastor Terry Jones, the Man Behind ‘International Burn A Koran Day’”

[I know I've already mentioned Hemant Metha the Friendly Atheist[1] previously on this blog, but I’m going to do so again.  What can I say?  He’s awesome and writes posts that make me want to comment.  I also think it’s awesome that he has the courage to contact people who he disagrees with and ask for an interview.  Here’s a comment I posted on his entry Interview with Pastor Terry Jones, the Man Behind International Burn A Koran Day.[2] I added italics to indicate words quoted from other people’s comments.]

July 24^th, 2010 at 9:19am[3]

I think this shows that they can’t prove that the Bible is actually better than the Qur’an, so instead of arguing why it’s better, they’re just burning the Qur’an. The horrible contents of the Bible are what convinced me that, if I converted from Islam to Christianity, I’d just be switching from one horrible religion to another. If this conversion attempt is going to work, they’re going to have to count on potential Muslim converts doing what so many Christians do — not actually reading the Bible and just trusting religious leaders who say it’s wonderful.

People like this are the reason why, as much as I respect and agree with Ayaan Hirsi Ali most of the time, I had to express my disagreement in that one post you did about her book Nomad, concerning Muslims converting to Islam [edit:  I meant to write "Christianity"]. I just don’t think that it would be much of an improvement if a Muslim joined a hateful church (whereas it would be if they joined a more secular church).

I think it’s different from Everybody Draw Mohammad Day, because EDMD was in response to some Muslims demanding that everyone should follow a religious rule in their holy book. This is just a deluded (and ridiculous) conversion attempt.

@Jagyr:

It all comes down to the book burning. Book burning is not generally illegal (as long as the books legally belong to you), and I support this guy’s first amendment rights to do it if he wants.
That being said, the whole thing does not sit well with me personally. Not only am I a bibliophile who cringes at the thought of even a dog-eared page, but there is a long, symbolic history behind book burning that makes me shudder.

I agree. It’s one of those situations when I support someone’s right to do it, but I think they’re being horrible for doing so.

Strangely, this is the same way I felt when people were burning Harry Potter books. They can do it, but it just makes them look ridiculous.

[Later, I posted another comment in response to what someone else wrote.]

July 24^th, 2010 at 9:23 am[4]

@Liberty:

I would rather urge people to read Quran and see for themselves that the piece can aptly be ternmed as ‘Book of Violence’.

I agree. It’s an insult to a person’s intelligence to demand that they should just accept someone else’s opinion about a book without reading it themselves.

[The post I was referring to in the first comment was Mehta’s review (from June 30, 2010) of Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s recent book Nomad, Why You Should Read Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.[5] The comment I wrote on that post can be found here.[6]]

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Edit

The link to the specific comment cited in footnote 6 no longer works because Friendly Atheist has moved to a different site with a different commenting system.  I have posted that comment along with some others in a separate entry, which can be found here.

URL:  http://eternalbookshelf.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/some-more-comments-on-converting-from-islam-to-christianity/

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References

[1] http://friendlyatheist.com

[2] Mehta, Hemant.  Interview with Pastor Terry Jones, the Man Behind International Burn A Koran Day at Friendly Atheist  Retrieved on July 24, 2010 from http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/07/24/interview-with-pastor-terry-jones-the-man-behind-“international-burn-a-koran-day”/.

[3] Comment by Sharmin on July 24, 2010 at 9:19 am on http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/07/24/interview-with-pastor-terry-jones-the-man-behind-“international-burn-a-koran-day”/#comment-520327.

[4] Comment by Sharmin on July 24, 2010 at 9:23 am on http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/07/24/interview-with-pastor-terry-jones-the-man-behind-“international-burn-a-koran-day”/#comment-520330.

[5] Mehta, Hemant.  Why You Should Read Nomad by Ayaan Hirsi Ali at Friendly Atheist.  Retrived on July 24, 2010 from http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/06/30/why-you-should-read-nomad-by-ayaan-hirsi-ali/.

[6] Comment by Sharmin on June 30^th, 2010 at 4:01 pm on http://friendlyatheist.com/2010/06/30/why-you-should-read-nomad-by-ayaan-hirsi-ali/#comment-506346.

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