Reply #166: I don't need to try.

[JackRiddler]

It's actually quite easy to understand: The people "we" (the empire falsely labeled U.S. and fronted by the Bush administration) are torturing and killing are upset with "us" ... (drumroll please)

... because "we" are torturing and killing them.

Any given straw (news of yet another outrage) could have broken the camel's back (caused riots).

As posters here have repeatedly pointed out, the Pentagon itself has said it wasn't the story of Koran flushing per se that did it. Those people were ready to riot, and it's no surprise that they did.

Of course, the Koran flushing, if it happened, qualifies as an outrage. That is, in its context: of being a device of torture. (To take an opposite example, as the work of an artist in a gallery, it would be protected speech. Ugly and nasty, but protected nevertheless.)

Beyond that, I really don't need a lecture about my failure to understand that a lot of people think this or that is the untouchable holy of holies. I have seen it first-hand, I understand it perfectly - and I find it laughable.

Among those who happen to have been born "Muslims," I do believe I side philosophically with those who don't think the Koran is the word of "God" (like, say, Salman Rushdie). Just as among those who happen to have been born "Christian," I sympathize most with those who chose to renounce their indoctrination.

Do you understand that?