Book burning
Nov. 26th, 2010 10:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sciolistBirmingham 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.
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.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-26 09:13 pm (UTC)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!