Kuwait announced this week that it will print thousands of copies of the Quran in Swedish to be distributed in the Nordic country, calling it an effort to educate the Swedish people on Islamic “values of coexistence.” The plan was announced after the desecration of a Quran during a one-man anti-Islam protest that Swedish police authorized in Stockholm last month.
Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah said the Public Authority for Public Care would print and distribute 100,000 translated copies of the Muslim holy book in Sweden, to “affirm the tolerance of the Islamic religion and promote values of coexistence among all human beings,” according to the country’s state news agency Kuna.
On June 28, Salwan Momika, a 37-year-old Iraqi Christian who had sought asylum in Sweden on religious grounds, stood outside the Stockholm Central Mosque and threw a copy of the Quran into the air and burned some of its pages.
The stunt came on the first day of Eid-al-Adha, one of the most important festivals on the Islamic calendar, and it triggered anger among Muslims worldwide. Protests were held in many Muslim nations, including Iraq, where hundreds of angry demonstrators stormed the Swedish embassy compound.
CBS News sought comment from the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Kuwaiti government’s announcement, but did not receive a reply by the time of publication.
The U.S. State Department condemned the desecration of the Quran in Stockholm, but said Swedish authorities were right to authorize the small protest where it occurred.
“We believe that demonstration creates an environment of fear that will impact the ability of Muslims and members of other religious minority groups from freely exercising their right to freedom of religion or belief in Sweden,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “We also believe that issuing the permit for this demonstration supports freedom of expression and is not an endorsement of the demonstration’s actions.”
The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution Wednesday condemning the burning of the Quran as an act of religious hatred. The U.S. and a handful of European nations voted against the resolution, which was introduced by Pakistan on behalf of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), arguing that it contradicts their perspectives on human rights and freedom of expression.
My wife hates it but I LOVE antagonizing the religious snakes who try to tell you about their bullshit in public. I grew up in the Bible Belt and I fucking HATE that fake “oh I’m just trying to save your immortal soul because you’re a sinner” bullshit. Fuck these people, they’re predators preying on people at their weakest and they don’t pay taxes while pissing their influence all over our politics.
Fuck. These. People. All of them.
I don’t stop walking but I always interrupt them or put words in their mouths or ask why their all powerful god won’t do anything about pedos when they’re screeching about that etc. Especially the ones that try to hand you things, love them! They’re always carrying a bunch of papers that you can knock out of their hands.
I hope these fuckwits meet lots of friendly people like me as they go to SOMEONE ELSE’S FUCKING COUNTRY to force their mythology on 😁
I now live in a building that has restricted access, so no one can randomly knock on my door. But the last place I lived had a door accessible to anyone who might walk up. Anyone pushing religion was kindly told to “Get Fucked,” and I closed the door. It happened maybe three times over the years I lived there. I’m otherwise very polite to strangers.
Coming to a stranger’s home and presuming you know better than they on such a (in their mind) important topic. To knock on my door and basically tell me that I’m wrong and they know the right answer. Get Fucked!
You sound like a well adjusted and kind member of society.
Someone sounds upset that their superstition isn’t treated as fact.
I’m very very VERY much an atheist. I’m just not insufferable smug about it.
I grew up in the bible Belt. I have no patience for their manipulation. They are predators preying on the weak and gullible and deserve the same disrespect that they give.
Now if you want to talk about smug, there’s dropping into a conversation and contributing nothing but insults and projecting that others are being smug…
If you don’t want to be insulted to brag about how you purposefully act like an asshole to people.
The problem is mate, your country funds the worst Muslim countries and other theocracies like the Saudis and Isreel. So when you advocate for going all militant atheist, you have to consider that you’re not harrassing or kicking down an already impoverished, powerless people whether they’re refugees or victims of US bombs in Yemen or Palestine.
I obviously understand your disdain for your local Christian fundamentalists.
Who said anything about militant atheism? I’m not the guy harassing strangers with my religious beliefs in public, but I am the guy mocking and embarrassing them (if they’re even capable of shame)
I don’t give a fuck what country someone is from. You don’t deserve respect when you go out and harass and insult strangers. Being a refugee and insulting your host country is even worse in my opinion. Deport those snakes, they obviously miss home. How dare they come up another country claiming to be seeking help and then spit on them like that.
What do you mean by that? Free speech is a fundamental right in most of the wealthiest democracies.
Who the fuck said anything about restricting free speech? You keep trying to put words in my mouth.
I said fuck em and I don’t respect them and I like to harass them while they’re harassing others. Not “the government should do blank because my feelings are hurt by speech”. I said I’d be fine with deporting refugees that use asylum deceitfully to push their agenda, but that’s probably unrealistic and would probably be used to hurt innocents.
Ancient mythology doesn’t suddenly deserve respect just because large groups of people decide they’re gonna take it literally and force it on everyone else every chance they get.
Yeah. I hope you see the threat of deportation discourages them from speaking out about any abuses, or criticising wrongdoing as a normal citizen of the country ought to.
I’ve already said I understand your wariness of Christian fundamentalists.
I’m simply concerned at what I see as an over-focus on social liberalism; it muddies the waters for the actual problem of poverty and marginalisation. It’s proven that people become less open to newcomers and ideas when their economic circumstances take a hit - and Europe has a racist tendency of shoving immigrants in poor neighbourhoods to keep them out of sight and poor. So in many cases we’re blaming the victims.
In the UK Christianity has massively declined, and yet they have a decade of no growth, stagnation, a third of children missing meals and Victorian diseases are back.
Yeah I realized after I said it that it was likely something I hadn’t thought through.
The UK is struggling largely because of conservatives who tear down services that help people to give tax breaks to the rich. They’re also the ones who pushed Brexit and privatized national rail and refuse to properly fund NHS. Is it a coincidence that they’re all overwhelmingly religious? I have a guess…
My saying your religion is stupid is just as protected as someone else talking about their imaginary friend.
To which my point was the threat of deportation discourages them from speaking out about any abuses, or criticising wrongdoing as a normal citizen of the country ought to.
And: I’m concerned at what I see as an over-focus on social liberalism; it muddies the waters for the actual problem of poverty and marginalisation. It’s proven that people become less open to newcomers and ideas when their economic circumstances take a hit - and Europe has a racist tendency of shoving immigrants in poor neighbourhoods to keep them out of sight and poor. So in many cases we’re blaming the victims.
So what you’re saying is that you expect the Kuwaiti government to pay taxes in Sweden?
Reading comprehension is hard.
It must be hard being religious in a world of science. You have to rely on distractions and half truths and obvious lies because your world view is so completely fucked that you are constantly at war with reality itself.
Too bad religion doesn’t coexist well with intelligence or education. It’s hard to be dumb, ignorant AND at battle with reality in every conversation with people outside your religion.
All that is to say, your post is a weak attempt to misdirect the conversation away from a government pushing their own refugees in a foreign country to force their religious bullshit on their host country.
Check out how many nobel prize winners are religious. There’s no fight between religion and science; some extremist sects do that to control their followers.
Religious Nobel winners becoming great minds in spite of their superstitions have nothing to do with thousands of years of scientific suppression by religions all over the world.
People don’t like their worldview challenged, but when your worldview is absurd and without evidence you’ll constantly be dealing with these challenges as people learn and ask more questions. If itt turns out the sun isn’t actually pulled across the sky by a god on a chariot every day, then what else is just nature and not a god? It disrupts your society, and has to be put down and people need to be distracted away from questioning the gods (and the people in high positions).
Religion has always been at war with curiosity, reason and (new) evidence. It’s the nature of being based on a fallacy, which is the assertion that god(s) exist without proof.
Throughout history the biggest centers of learning were funded by or associated with religious organizations, from madrases to Oxford university. Things like the islamic golden age and the renaissance are paired with the religion of the age and area.
Secularism/atheists are also contributors to scientific discovery but to ignore past and present events is just blind ignorance borne of entrenching yourself in anti-religious propaganda