Lars Vilks makes explicitly and implicitly some crucial points—the act of individuals burning ‘scriptures’ (compilations of myths) is not the same as the imposition of those scriptures on individuals. Sharia is government, judicial and religious authority all rolled up into one—just like the Torah for the Jews and the New Testament for the Catholic Church were at one time—but in the end, all who live by a book, not their hearts and minds, will end up being skewered and burnt as heretics by the strictures of their own book.
The view that Western culture can understand, but not reject Islam or Hinduism or Cannibalism—that all cultures are equally valid—is a naïve and dangerous faith: why not bring back Stalinism or Nazism as well? For 1,000 years, Sharia has banned ijtihad (mental struggle—the complement of jihad—physical struggle) and created a stagnant and repressive culture (Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451′ with its book burning fire-men comes to mind).
The West rejected, starting with the Rennaissance (recall Pico della Mirandola’s ‘Oration on the Dignity of Man’), a life based on myth or superstition and adopted a culture of dissent and discussion in which individual choice and responsibility were enshrined—thank you for continuing to keep that tradition alive.
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