October 05, 2005

Korans! Get Your Free Korans!

CAIR is now giving away free copies of the Koran to non-Muslims.

"Explore the Quran" is CAIR's attempt to counter what the organization regards as continuing negative publicity surrounding the Koran, including the alleged desecration of the holy book at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prisons. Those who request a Koran receive a thick hardcover book with English translation next to the Arabic on each page.

If someone here really wants a copy of the Koran to leaf through and "explore," then that is their right. But how kindly do Muslims take to Christians trying to hand out holy literature? The following is from Free Muslims.org regarding certain attitudes in Turkey:

Horrified by the imagined threat from Christianity, they appeal to the authoritarian measures of the state. They demand that Bible-distributing Christians should be arrested, or chapels in their homes should be put under police scrutiny.

CAIR is worried about what Americans think, but they don't have to worry about getting in trouble for having Korans, let alone distritubing them to others.

Back in May, Victor David Hanson mused about the Muslims and the Koran, and put the shoe on the other foot:

...They know, as we should, that Muslims have desecrated thousands of Korans and mosques, and that Muslims have desecrated Bibles and churches, most recently when Palestinian Arab murderers occupied the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. They know that Muslims in the West are free to practice their religion, while Christians and Jews in many Muslim countries are subjected to restrictions and often persecution. And they know they don't apologize for any of this blasphemous, intolerant behavior. But the double standard is precisely the point: it expresses power, the power of their spiritual belief to compel us to sanction and tolerate such obvious hypocrisy.

CAIR says its aim is for understanding and tolerance. Yet what it wants from others it cannot give--understanding and tolerance for religions other than Islam is obviously not part of their PR plan. Not even terrorism in the name of Islam is questioned.