Book burning

[sciolist]

Birmingham girl arrested for allegedly burning Quran
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/25/girl-arrested-allegedly-burning-quran

This kind of story upsets me a little since I wonder where the legal line gets drawn. What are acceptable ways of house-tidying or disposing of personal property? Garden waste is OK to burn, so's old furniture and arguably being paper, books could be burned too.

So, if you're allowed to burn your own unwanted property safely - where's the crime? Would it be better or worse if the Quran was one of a bunch of books being burned? Is chucking it in a wheelie bin that much more respectful? Is deleting a pdf of the Quran innately offensive? Could other faiths object to other books being disposed of? If Jedi is officially a faith in some circles does that mean that Splinter of the Mind's Eye could be holy enough to be criminal to burn? It's certainly unreliable and inconsistent with the later Star Wars canon. Even if you think the object in general is special, why should that affect what I can do with my instance of that object.

It feels like they've got a sticky situation where they're trying to make the intent criminal, and that's got to be harder than demonstrating the actual actions performed.

If I could be bothered, it'd make me tempted to hold a big book bonfire party. Just bring a book that you think is worthy of permanent disposal to render it unreadable by others.

Fret not, I'm likely not that motivated.

Comments

[jang]

If it's proven that hate is the reason, then she should be punished according to the religious hatred laws.

Whether or not an act is motivated by hatred per se, the crime is acting or speaking with an intention to stir up religious hatred; not hating something. In other words, a bigot can do whatever they like providing, say, that their motivation is making someone question their own religion.

Whether a young punk could carry off that defence is anyone's guess. Being outrageous for its own sake without thinking of the consequences is something teenagers have a tendency to do. School is the place to learn lessons like "folk take this seriously". Does that merit:

[[[
(a)on conviction on indictment to imprisonment for a term not exceeding seven years or a fine or both;

(b)on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum or both.
]]]

or just giving her a scare and a bit of a wake-up call?

[valiha]

Honestly? I don't know. I don't think there should be prison time involved, but I do think there should be stricter punishments for this and not just a scare. Then again I think there should be stricter punishments in general for many things we tend to disregard too easily. (And also, I think home is primarily the place we should learn those lessons. If a parent hasn't done their job, there's very little I can do to correct the behavior of a student other than report them to the disciplinary committee.)

So a - what do you call it - probation?? Conditional punishment?? Where you're don't go to prison but have to report to a probation officer?? And probably a fine.

Mind you, this is just my personal opinion, plus I cannot help but be influenced by the fact that the event had something to do with my religion. To many of us have been rounded up and raped and killed because of who we are for something like this to be anything but a sensitive subject for me.

[jang]

Heh, at least you recognise it! My own wish would be that appropriate punishments should be determined by those who are not emotionally connected to the (alleged or otherwise) crime.

That presupposes that the machinery of justice is good at apposite levels of response. The trouble is, once something like this has landed in the lap of the powers that be, there's a feeling that something must be done about it and the opportunity to put things to bed with, "try to be a bit more bloody considerate" is lost. Instead, additional attention is given to something that's liable to cause an escalation of feeling the longer it's on the radar :-(

[valiha]

Oh yeah, I'm aware of it. I'm not perfect, and I have my own prejudice, and sometimes presume too much, but I think I'm mature enough to be able to step back and say, OK, gut feelings and reactions are one thing, but long-term actions are another. I'm always working on becoming a better person.

I'm a pretty level-headed gal; I think the only time I actually got pissed off enough to go and tell somebody off was when a fandom organized a writing contest to kill off (preferably in a bloody manner) a character I loved and most of them disliked. I'm afraid character bashing is one of my hot buttons!