August 4, 2007

Throw Quran in Toilet, Get Arrested

Freedom of speech, book banning/burning, the burning of the American flag, threats of censorship…do these only apply when it comes to a Christian saying or writing something you disagree with? Why is it that a person can desecrate a Holy Bible, but if you throw a Quran into a toilet bowl, you will be arrested for a “hate crime”? You can go around saying, “Jesus was gay,” or say bad things about The Blessed Mother (Mary, the Mother of Jesus), or the Apostles and prophets, God Himself or well, pretty much ANYONE else, and you can rip up and stomp on or burn the flag, or you can create a painting of Jesus dipped in urine and claim “artistic expression,” but if you have a negative opinion about a Quran, you’re bum out of luck. Your butt’s going to jail for HATING!

NEW YORK (AP) - A 23-year-old man was arrested on hate-crime charges after he threw a Quran in a toilet at Pace University on two different dates, police said.

I mean, how dare he throw a book into a toilet, yo! What a rebel! Hating all those pages and hating all that ink and making a book all…wet! I once read Anne of Green Gables in the bath and dropped it by accident; I hope the Canadian government isn’t after me for desecrating one of Canada’s most beloved books! I better watch my back. The other day I happened to put my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows down on a table where I’d previous stored a half eaten cough drop (ok, I forgot to throw it away, so what) and got the pages sticky. I hope the guardians of the Potterverse don’t sic any Dementors on me.

Stanislav Shmulevich of Brooklyn was arrested July 27 on charges of criminal mischief and aggravated harassment, both hate crimes, police said.

So, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment are “hate crimes”, eh? Can someone tell me what a “love crime” is, please? What crime could one commit just because they love something or someone? And by the way, how is hating a Quran exactly a crime? No one cares if Christians are offended by the desecration of their Holy Book (The Holy Bible). No one cares if we’re told we can’t call Christmas “Christmas” anymore because we have to feel bad for all the non believers out there (despite the fact that Christmas is a federally recognized holiday so if you have a problem with someone wishing you a Merry Christmas, take it up with the US Government. And while you’re at it, demand that everyone has to work on Sundays because right now the country is practicing a Sabbath by giving people off and stopping mail services on Sunday. The entire concept of a “day of rest” comes from the Bible, and the concept of Sunday being the day of rest comes from Christianity.)

But I digress.

Muslim students accused the school of not taking the incident seriously enough at first. Pace classified the first desecration of the holy book as an act of vandalism, but university officials later reversed themselves and referred the incident to the New York Police Department’s hate crimes unit.

Do you really think if a group of Christians made a stink about finding a Bible in a toilet, anyone would have gone to the police department’s hate crimes unit over it?

your Origami reporter,
Momo