Saturday, September 11, 2010

Koran Burning and American Media Hypocrisy

I just love when events like the upcoming Koran burning in Florida expose the hypocrisy of the American media. An event that would be a non-issue if it were the book of any other religion in the world has suddenly become a major event because some wacko decided to burn some copies of the Koran (or Qu'ran, etc.) Is this event really about how offensive this is to the Muslim world, or is simply a chance for the media to score points against fundamentalist Christians and cater to the Muslim world? I decided to do a little research on Youtube as to just how prevalent the burning of the holy books of different religions is. This is what I found.

1. Christian Bible: Not surprisingly, lots of videos of burning the Christian Bible exist on Youtube; and they don't seem to have generated much of a reaction from the media. Could it be that the media doesn't care as long as the beliefs being picked on are those of the Western world? I'll let you be the judge.

Burning the Bible: Okay on Youtube


2. American Flag: But, maybe this is only a discourtesy extended to religion. Surely, the outcry from the media would be much greater if people were burning the flags of the United States of America, the beacon of democracy and science for much of the world . . .  or not.

American Flag Burning Also Okay on Youtube

3. Book of Mormon: Maybe I've been looking in the wrong direction here. After all, both Americans and Christians hold a lot of power in the world, particularly in the United States. Perhaps if it was the holy book of a minor Christian sect, the Mormons perhaps, the outrage would be greater. I mean, after all, both Mormons and Muslims comprise a small minority of the population of the United States (~5 million or so). Both routinely have their beliefs misrepresented in public, are made pariahs by the public, and get blamed for things collectively that individuals in each group my privately oppose. Surely, a higher standard of scrutiny will exist if someone tries to burn the holy book of those poor Mormons. Eh, not so much.

Marilyn Manson Burns Book of Mormon: Where is The Outrage?

4. Burning Gross Stuff: My final idea was that maybe the media outrage was so great in this case because it was just nasty, kind of like burning old underwear of fecal matter. Unfortunately, my theory failed yet again. Both of those types of videos exist in abundance on Youtube.

Burning Underwear on Youtube


The video of burning poop wont load for some reason, but just search "burn poop" on Youtube.


5. Burning Koran: Finally, I come to the acme of the article. This is what I got when I searched "burning Koran" on Youtube. Notice anything absent -- like a pertinent search result?

Even though only the first three search terms are present, a video of an actual Koran burning is equally hard to find if you scroll down the first, second, or even third pages. Youtube: censor much?





I did finally manage to find a video of a Koran burning, which will be the final thing I include in my post. So, in summary, the media doesn't mind if people make fun of religion or culture -- as long as it's of the Western flavor.





Hot Muslim Chick (she's not saving herself for Allah in the afterlife):


Hot Muslim Chick: Allah Who?



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8 comments:

  1. Shame shall be upon you!

    You shall be burned in the fires of Allah's wrath and raped by all of my 72 virgins!

    ReplyDelete
  2. If they look like the Muslim girl above . . . well, I guess that I'll just have to, er, endure the torture of it all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Allah (piece of pizza be upon him) shall smite you down, you bastard gay!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your Allah sounds like kind of a jerk. Maybe I'll bring a machine gun to heaven and take care of his sorry ass.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You would do that to Allah?

    No! Don't kill Allah! He's all I've got in life! He promised me lots of sex when I get to heaven. All I have to do is blow up a couple of buildings full of Israeli school children - no biggie actually.

    Without Allah, I would have to find hobbies and friends -- maybe a girlfriend.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Funny Comments. I don't recall you mentioning Allah in the article. Your article was so thought provoking I got up off my lazy ferret butt and found the password to my blog.

    However, JC, with so much research, I found the punch line at the end a bit oversimplified, not from an Editor's standpoint, but just as a reader enjoying a quick time kill.

    To assume the media favors making fun of Western Religions is probably a bit too assuming by half. I expected with such a strong open and middle, you were going to really argue the point in an journalistic flourish equal to your cause.

    Well, that is all I have time for, I added your blog to Sarcastic Sam's. Have a great week!

    ReplyDelete

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