Koran and September 11

A crazy preacher in Florida wants to burn a Koran on Sept 11 on the 9th anniversary of the terrorist strikes in America.  It was when 19 completely deranged people decided to administer a medicine to a superpower, that collateral damage is not just confined to the Middle East. America woke up, and a trillion dollars have been spent in misdirected wars. A lot more than 3000 have been killed since, another 4000 of brave Americans, and tens of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis have died as part of the collateral damage. Yes, the hard core elements have died too in that process, but innocent lives came with it.

That brings us back to the Koran. It was interesting when the whole world was commenting on an action of a crazy preacher wanting to get his 15 minutes of fame, a disgrace to the cloth he wears. Just two years back hundreds of Bibles were burnt in Jerusalem by Palestinians, where was the American outrage and world outrage then? No one screamed, no one asked for peace.

The reason is simple: the imam has a megaphone 5 times a days, and can stir up emotions as no one else can. Most Christians do not even go to their churches, even if they do its once a week. Therein lies the difference. Emotions can be whipped up easily one way. Hence the fear.

When a bunch of un or under employed people, with no or poor family ties, living in extreme poverty, get together they are look for a goal - any goal, to find purpose (which comes with food and money), you have them to do anything. They know living such a life, unheard, is no life at all. Dying young in glory is another matter. Koran binds them that way...its the way of life...so even one book burned goes a long way.

On the flip side, unless better employment conditions are not created (a la Dubai, Abu Dhabhi), talking to this crowd is pointless, force is everything.  Inspite of all the aid poured in from United States, Pakistanis will always hate Americans...nothing positive we do matters. All they want is their money, and then go away.  In many movies in  Bollywood, the explicit dialogue is to do whatever to "get money from that white man (gora)", then make fun of all their ways behind their back.

In other words, every bird cares about itself first. If burning a Koran endangers our birds, then we should not encourage it. But don't expect the other flock of bird to understand. They only care about themselves.