NewsTweak

Blogs everywhere seem to be tackling Newsweek's non-apology for their coverage of the non-story involving an alleged and, it turns out, very much unsubstantiated Koran desecration. The Blogfather has three (count 'em: one, two, three) separate posts on it in less than 24 hours. But while the main thrust of discussion seems to be about American journalists continuing to fall into the same [self-]destructive trap as their overseas counterparts, what stands out for me is the excessive reaction to the story, whether true or false.

One cannot be much of a believer if his beliefs are shaken because somebody spoiled his literature. No-one died because a dung-splattered Virgin Mary upset Catholics. If the heart of your spiritual life is a stack of paper, losing the pages is the least of your worries.

There are also questions of civil, governmental, and cultural rights here. Is blasphemy against international law? Should it be? Why? Can we say flushing a book has passed from the realm of brute ignorance into that of torture? What if the book was supplied by the same people who took it away--in other words, does an entity have the right to destroy the books it loans? Does the destruction of any book, even with the intention of "rattling" the recipient, justify death and mass hatred?

By all means protest blasphemy. Everyone has the right to be offended, and to express their feelings through civil means. But I disagree with the judge in this case that blasphemy is a "gratuitous and aggressive act of intrusion on people's innermost beliefs", when the real oppression comes in acts of fascism, either mandating religious practice or restricting the free & fair practice of individuals, or terminating people's ability to have innermost beliefs (usually by terminating the people). Anything else is not an intrusion, it is an insult. As I covered earlier, the right to be offended precludes a right not to be offended.

Update: Professor Reynolds now says that "heads should roll at the Pentagon for this." But what he means is probably not what you think.

Update II: Flushed with failure.