re: #2 Timmeh

The Muslims desecrate and burn our flag every day. We don’t like it but we know it’s just a piece of cloth at the end of the day and it’s not worth getting upset over.

The Quran is just paper, leather, ink and glue at the end of the day, and its not worth getting upset over. Muslims really need to grow a thicker skin.

There’s that broad brush again. There are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, the vast majority of whom are NOT rioting over this stuff or burning flags.

I would also point out that we have no way of knowing what is being told to the Afghans about this story and whether there may be one (or more) instigators whipping people into a frenzy for their own purposes, as was reported to have happened last year:

Protests Over Koran Burning Reach Kandahar
[…] Both Afghan and international news media had initially played down or ignored the actions of Mr. Jones, the Florida pastor. On Thursday, however, President Karzai made a speech and issued statements condemning the Koran burning and calling for the arrest of Mr. Jones for his actions. On Friday, that theme was picked up in mosques throughout Afghanistan.

“Karzai brought this issue back to life, and he has to take some responsibility for starting this up,” said a prominent Afghan businessman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution if he was identified as a critic of the president.

“Karzai’s speech itself provoked people to take such actions,” said Qayum Baabak, a political analyst in Mazar-i-Sharif. “Karzai should have called on people to be patient rather than making people more angry.”

Officials in Mazar-i-Sharif also blamed Taliban agitators from other provinces for stirring up violence in the protests there. […]

Instigation and rioting on both sides has also been responsible for the deaths of hundreds in Nigeria: Nigeria election riots: How leaders stoke Muslim-Christian violence

Then there are the ongoing Hindu-Sikh-Muslim flare-ups in India…