It's always good to see bigoted religious propaganda trashed, and it shouldn't be a crime, but a public service. Especially it shouldn't be racism since Islam isn't a race at all.

However, I have a suspicion the act wasn't taken because of opposition to religious bigotry (why not the Bible or Koran as well?) but because of racist reasons. I would love to be proved wrong though.

Maybe anti-fascists could hold some public book-burnings of the Koran, the Bible and the Torah all together? Plus some of the other holy books that I can't remember the names of.

Personally I don't see anything anti-fascist about book burning. I say this as an athiest and a critic of Islamic fundamentalism. Books aren't the problem - its' the people who read them.

What's the Bible? A selection of ancient science fiction stories, basically, all about how some guy who was born as a result of artificial insemination turned out to be the savior of mankind. Pretty cool really.

The OT (which is also part of the Bibble) is much the same - some legalistic documents and ideas about numerology which are of some value to human studies scientists due to their dating back to around 3000 BC.

What's the Koran? Another silly book, this one about how great peace and social justice are while simultaneously extolling the faithful to kill the crap out of anyone who fails to share your caring, inclusive vision.

If anyone wants to challenge the power of those bigoted old shits that arrogantly claims to speak on behalf of God, well, that's another story, but setting fire to books, even bad books is the hallmark of the barbarian and the fascist.

While it is true that Islam is a religion rather than a "race," it's equally true that it's a religion more commonly found among ethnic minorities (south asian and middle eastern specifically), and that the mass media often mix the religious and racial issues involved.

(As an example:  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196070/The-shocking-picture-white-boy-aged-11-converted-Islam-Choudary.html . Their objection isn't just that he's a young boy being converted to Islam, but that he's One Of Us - i.e. white folks - being taken in by One Of Them - i.e. brown folks.)

Criticism of Islam isn't racist but the two do often go hand in hand, ignoring that fact strikes me as deliberate ignorance.

Books are just pieces of paper, it generally isn't that big a deal if you burn them or if you don't.

If it's the last copy of some valuable information then sure, but there are millions of copies of religious books and you can look at them on the internet if you want, so it isn't like we are living in a time of book scarcity.

I would argue that using Korans, Bibles and Torahs for firewood is a much better use for them than reading them.

Anyway, it is the principle of the thing - we should be allowed to burn them if we want, irrespective of whether it is a good idea or not. Let's not let racists hijack the noble cause of attacking religions for their own twisted ends.

Good point from the other commentator about criticism of Islam (religion) often going hand in hand with criticism of races.

the koran should be burnt with all other religous books, religion causes conflict and division in society and is simply holding everybody back from converting to socialism. We cannot form an equal society and socialist state when we have repressive religous cults active in society. A massive percentage of conflict in the world is because of religion, areas such as the Middle East have known nothing but conflict due to religion, each religion claims to be true, whilst many jews, muslims and christians see themselves as being superior to other faiths. The UAF have taken a pro-islamic stance which is out of step with traditional anti-Fascist politics who have always been traditionally athiest, this could lead to serious decline in UAF support. Religion is the opium of the people, that a serve a state function of repressing people. So as anti-fascists we should reject all religion and have no mosques and no churches.

Let me get this straight: I don't agree with the arrests. But I have no sympathy whatsoever for these twats. Burning books is basically the sort of thing the Fundies do. Aside from the shit-stirring nature of this event, it's ultimately an extremely uncivilised gesture.

Burning books basically lowers us to the level of the Fundies; it's the sort of thing they do in the Deep South or Iran or somewhere. It's the favoured practice of barbarians, who can't read and need the firewood, and fascists who can read but don't want anyone else to.

If we're going to get rid of the pernicious influence of organised religion it's not going to be by staging book-burnings and abusing religious people in the street but by the long hard slog of supporting education, women's rights, criticism, oh, and also well-placed prosecutions when innocent people (like poor ole Rushdie) are threatened by religious loonies.

These kids? They're just a bunch of dicks and should be ignored by all.

When having a clearout of old rubbish, I've burnt books.

So what?

I paid for them, I can do with them what I like.
What next? Someone gets arrested for burning some old Ikea furniture.
A book is an possession like anything else. The owner of that book can do what they like with it.

antifacists burning the koran hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahahha they would be to scared of the reaction from the religeon of peace

"While it is true that Islam is a religion rather than a "race," it's equally true that it's a religion more commonly found among ethnic minorities (south asian and middle eastern specifically), and that the mass media often mix the religious and racial issues involved."

The world population is currently around 6.6 Billion.

The religious population is about 5.5 Billion.

About 2.1 Billion are Christian and about 1.5 Billion are Islamic.

Christianity is in decline, Islam is becoming more popular, largely driven by perception of persecution of Islam by aggressive secular drop-outs from the dwindling Christian churches. As the Pope said, aggressive secular interests are becoming more acrimonious to the churches and in the UK, this loss of belonging and spiritual well-being, is being directed not at the domestic churches, government, media or industry, but at adherents of Islam.

I'm not entirely sure whether this is racism, it seems more politically reactionary than that. But I do know that statements such as Islam being an "ethnic minority" are clearly systemic of this newly appearing secular aggressiveness. It isn't just uncharitable, its fundamentally inaccurate.

To describe people who burn the Quran as acting responsibly, is to turn your back on the basic reality of the world we live in. To burn any religious literature, is an affront to the vast majority. To justify it, is to act to defend the stupidity of offending for the sake of causing offence. This is not freedom of speech. It is a fraudulent pastiche of freedom of speech, exercised with the ultimate goal of destroying it.

Burning the Quran is as futile an act as burning the Bible or any other text.

Given the composition of the faiths, and the number of adherents of those faiths, burning of religious texts is a point beyond which there must be no tolerance. If you go beyond this, the offence is taken by so many, that all other literature can then by burned without complaint.

That includes "Das Kapital", the "Communist Manifesto" or "A Monetary History of the United States".

@Max: Personally I prefer to give away stuff like that. Seems a bit wasteful and, as I say, barbaric to burn books. But of course you can do what you like with your old crap. I'm not saying you should be prosecuted, just that it makes you a bit of a knob imho, that's all.

@Stourbridge: Get off your high horse. The worst thing that can happen is that someone gets offended? My arse. That's the trouble with you lot, everything's the Worst Thing In The World, Ever, isn't it?

When in reality stuff like this is just a pathetic gesture by a loser who needs to get laid more often.

No, if you want to actually make the world a better place and fight religious extremism, help promote women's rights and education. Now that really pisses off the Fundies no end...

"No, if you want to actually make the world a better place and fight religious extremism, help promote women's rights and education. Now that really pisses off the Fundies no end..."

So...

Your fighting for these things because you want to piss fundamentalist's off then..?

Can you give me any insight into your knowledge of women's rights and education by any chance?

Book burning is barbarian and fundamentalist. It is the symbolism behind the act that is important rather then the burning of some mass produced and easily replaceable bits of printed paper. It is the symbolic destruction of information to suppress, the burning/destruction of something important to someone somewhere.

While I have no time for organised religion there are far better ways of striking back against them than a pointless-on-a-practical-level action that will just serve to piss people off rather than make real progress in solving the problems caused by fundamentalism. Book burning, barbaric and intelectually reductive in its symbolism, serves no purpose. All it will do is make those to who the book "belongs" feel repressed and more comitted ot their abhorent views.
What is needed is a variety of actions to negate the problems these groups cause - standing up for the rights of the opressed, educating the fanatics are only 2 possibilities.

"where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also." - Heinrich Heine.

And on a practical point, burning books chucks carbon out into the environment.

The Dim bunch will admit the charges in an attempt to escape jail, get stitched up by the CPS and each be given 3 and a half years in Jail.
They will be able to explain it to the Muslim gangs once inside.
So what is there to worry about ?

Burning seems rather symbolic doesn't it? I mean we are all social animals coming out of historical and cultural contexts - and fire and books strikes a bit of a chord doesn't it? Isn't that the reason these people did it? Not because they randomly had a clear out of old books and decided that second it would be the best way of disposing of them, but because they wanted some publicity, wanted to create a bit of a stir? I think they got what they deserved quite frankly.

I'm also an ardent hater of organised religious institutions and orders, but I can't see anything particularly productive in having a ceremony to burn a book.

Why not recycle the bloody books if that's what you want? Why have a song and dance about the whole thing? Why don't I have a ceremony online next time I wipe my arse?

I think the more Korans, Bibles and Torahs that get burnt the better. We can do without that kind of bigoted moralising fairytale brainwashing in this day and age.

Suppose you come across a bag containing thousands of BNP/EDL/neo-nazi leaflets. Would it be "barbaric", "insensitive", "censorship" or wrong to burn them or chuck them in the bin? Should you give them away or pass them on to people who might find them useful or interesting? Of course not. Religious bigoted propaganda is exactly the same principle. I would consider it a crime against humanity to pass any of these hateful books onto someone else.

Of course I'm under no illusion that burning books is the way to free people from the shackles of religion, since they will print them as fast as we can burn them. Tactically wrong but right as a matter of principle.