You won't hear about this one in the MSM (mainstream media) though. (No international conflict, no Americans involved.) You also won't read of the historical Muslim reaction to such desecration, described below.
This story this time has a twist...from a Pakistan Daily Times OpEd by Khaled Ahmed (pictured above)
"According to Khabrain (August 2, 2005) some miscreant threw a copy of the Quran in the toilet of an Ahle Hadith mosque near the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in Raiwind near Lahore. When the clerics raised hue and cry the population of the area came out and staged a protest. A large number of people blocked traffic and threatened the travellers. The procession was in extreme agony over the desecration and beat their chests and damaged property. According to Nawa-e-Waqt, the protest spilled into second day and this time the offended population stopped the trains and stoned the passengers who got hurt. They also stoned the cars passing on the Raiwind Road.
One police officer sent to stop the vandalism was so scared that he joined the protest and raised slogans along with the protesters. The procession was greatly strengthened when the MMA gave a call and got its followers to join it. [The MMA =same al Qaeda/Taliban supporting group that tried to fan the 'Newsweek' riots into a global event, and which wants to overthrow the Musharraf regime -SG] According to daily Pakistan, Khyber Mail was stopped for an hour. Its windows were broken and many passengers injured.
There was a time when the common man reacted differently to desecration of the Quran. He felt deeply offended and he tried to collect the pages and put them in a safe place. This is what the Muslims have done in history, if you read about the steps taken by different Muslim societies to safeguard the sanctity of the scripture. But today we act differently although our level of education is higher than ever. We go on the rampage, hurt innocent people going on the road, destroy property, public and private, and desecrate our civil environment. It is easy today for our enemies to destroy us. They simply have to arrange a few desecrations and the entire country will be put to the torch by our own people."
The cynical and political opportunism that leavens and seeks to escalate such protests (as in the Newsweek situation) should be noted. The MMA coalition seeks opportunities to hit out against its foes: the West, the Musharraf regime for two.
