One is released from Iranian captivity. Lessons learned ?

At left are the three "spies" being held in Iranian captivity. They were taken captive more than a year ago.

Apparently, the young woman was released this morning. It is not clear whether any "bail" was paid. Her two friends will be held for "two more months," according to their Iranian captors.

While we pray for these kids, our prayer includes concern that these idealistic youth and others like them will get to the point, intellectually, of realizing that there are evil people in this world. The general "goodness of man," is not an appraisal that extends to those whose very religion is one of hate and violent judgment against "unbelievers." The Koran is hardly a memo from God to man on how to co-exist in a world of opposing opinions and differing faiths.

update: the morning televised reports are telling us that the 30 year old woman released this morning was released on $500,000 "bail." The significance of this is that she will be expected to return to Iran for trial.

Burn the Koran ?! A reading of the Koran compared to a reading of the New Testatment scriptures is the best protest. A fifth grader could have . . .

"We call on America to stop desecrating our Holy Koran," student Wahidullah Nori told Reuters. He said the street protests condemning the church would continue "every day" . . . . . link

These are the words of a few hundred Muslim students protesting an American church's decision to burn the Koran on September 11. Understand that these Muslim students are shouting "death to America" in protest to this announced event, but they were shouting "death to America" long before today -- in fact, that have been taught this in virtually every Muslim school outside the United States for a decade or more.

We -- Midknight Review and friends - would not have made the decision to burn the Koran. In fact, this editor is busy reading the book. Two major themes are repeated over and over again: instructions on dealing with wives and sex slave women; different levels of punishment meted out to unbelievers, Christians and Jews. I find the Koran's view of women, whether wives or sex slaves, to be completely at odds with the biblical message. It appears that the "allah god" is a chauvinist of the first degree. With regard to those who are not Muslim -- there is little to nothing that is "big tent" or conciliatory in the Koran. I have found the content lacking in depth of meaning and disjointed in its rhetorical progression -- it is something a fifth grader might write. Understand that as a Christian, I view the Old Testament as history and the New Testament as a guide to understanding the impact of the risen Christ of God.

But, back to the book burning idea. That is something we would not recommend. Making life more difficult on our soldiers (and the court is out on this populace idea - can the Taliban hate us more ?) is not something that we would risk. Having said that, the burning of our flags and holy books, and the continuing plan to murder innocent Americans in their homeland make the Florida church's decision most understandable.

Understand what we are saying: we see the reasons for the protest and agree with the intentions of the church in question. But we think there are other protests that are more effective. We would not burn the Koran nor would we attend the burning.

A more effective demonstration against the Koran is suggested in this post -- a careful reading of the book with a view of exposing its hateful content and the single mindedness of its message. The book has nothing to do with grace, or inclusion, or the support of one culture over another as is the case with the Bible. That is what needs discussion. Koran, book burning, Florida church, Muslim hate, flag burning, bible burning,

jds