Shooting the Quran

President Bush has apologized to Iraq's prime minister for an American sniper's shooting of a Quran and the U.S. military said Sunday that it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after he was found to have used Islam's holy book for target practice.

Iraqi police found the bullet-riddled Quran with graffiti inside the cover on a firing range near a police station in Radwaniyah, a former insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad. Members of the local U.S.-allied group said the Quran was found with 14 bullet holes in a field after U.S. troops withdrew from a base in the area.

Al-Maliki's office said the Iraqi Cabinet called on Tuesday for the "severest" punishment against the sniper and warned of "grave consequences" if similarly offensive actions were committed in the future.

On Tuesday, Khalaf al-Elyan, a senior Sunni Arab lawmaker, said the sniper must stand trial, preferably in Baghdad.

I wonder what they mean by "severest punishment"? Is this Death? 5, 10, 15, 20 years in jail? This soldiers actions were culturally insensitive, stupid, and wrong... but would we be having this conversation if he were shooting a Bible? A Torah? 40 churches have been bombed by militants in Iraq since June 26th, 2004... where was the global outrage then?

There is no doubt that the soldier in question should be punished, but the question is for what? Use of an unauthorized target on a military range? Violation of general orders regarding culturally insensitive behavior? Certainly not for shooting a book. It's a book, you know, paper, cardboard, maybe some leather or some leatherette, little bit of glue, some ink. It's the message inside that's important...and somehow, I think, the bullets did very little damage to that.

The Al-Arabiya article had a quote from 'Muslim scholars' that is probably the best route. "Everyone is reminded that God protects his book and his revenge is strong," the scholars said.

Sounds like a good idea to me... It's his book, let him handle it.

~Finntann~