Saturday, May 14, 2005

Newsweek sparks global riots

Times Online reported At least nine people were killed yesterday as a wave of anti-American demonstrations swept the Islamic world from the Gaza Strip to the Java Sea, sparked by a single paragraph in a magazine alleging that US military interrogators had desecrated the Koran.

As Washington scrambled to calm the outrage, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, promised an inquiry and punishment for any proven offenders. But at Friday prayers in the Muslim world many preachers demanded vengeance and afterwards thousands took to the streets, burning American flags.


Look at the trouble Newsweek caused by one paragraph making an unconfirmed claim. If you have a subscription to Newsweek I urge you to cancel it, and tell them why.

2 comments:

Kobayashi Maru said...

Try running the exercise in reverse to see the double standard: How many fatal mass riots in Western capitals would be sparked by a report on Al Jazeera that Saudi radicals had desecrated a Christian Bible?
(For the record, my Newsweek subscription got cancelled a looong time ago.)

Don Singleton said...

Try running the exercise in reverse to see the double standard: How many fatal mass riots in Western capitals would be sparked by a report on Al Jazeera that Saudi radicals had desecrated a Christian Bible?

The number is zero. Some bloggers might complain about it, but that is all. Christians face severe restraints just practicing their faith in Saudia Arabia, and while we pray for them, we don't riot about it.