For more information, please contact:
Ed Buckner, President 908-499-9200 (cell) or 770-803-5353 (office/fax)
Dave Silverman, Communications Director 732-648-9333ATHEISTS ON CHURCH BONFIRE TO BURN QU’RAN:
BOOKS ARE FOR READING, NOT BURNING
Group Issues Short Recommended List For ReadersAn Atheist advocacy group today denounced plans by a Florida Christian group to hold a mass burning of the Qu’ran to mark the 9-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. has been denied a permit or its planned “International Burn a Qu’ran Day” protest, but threatens to proceed with the event. The burning has been condemned by secular and religious groups throughout the country.
Dr. Ed Buckner, President of American Atheists, said that while everyone must have the right to free expression, burning books is a universal symbol of intolerance, ignorance, and hate. As a result, he said, American Atheists is urging Atheist, Freethought, Humanist and other secular groups to encourage reading about different religions, and hosting discussion forums, debates and other exchanges of ideas leading up to and on 9/11.
“ In addition to studying the Bible, the Qu’ran and other ‘holy books,’ we’re recommending a brief reading list people may want to delve into,” said Buckner. “And when you finish those, we can recommend many more. Read, don’t burn. Think, don’t swallow what anyone else is telling you.”
The suggested titles include:
WHY I AM NOT A CHRISTIAN by Bertrand Russell
WHY I AM NOT A MUSLIM by Ibn Warraq
WHY I AM AN ATHEIST by Madalyn Murray O’Hair
ATHEISM ADVANCED by David Eller
BAUBLES OF BLASPHEMY by Edwin Kagin
GOD IS NOT GREAT by Christopher Hitchens
THE GOD DELUSION by Richard Dawkins“We’re also encouraging groups to have open debates and discussions between religious and secular Americans in hopes of casting light — not heat — on religion.
Dave Silverman, Vice President and Communications Director for American Atheists said that book burning is a “dangerous, downhill slope.”
“Today it’s burning books like the Nazis did; tomorrow it’s banning them outright, and maybe burning the people who believe in something the majority does not want to tolerate.”
AMERICAN ATHEISTS is a nationwide movement that defends civil rights for Atheists, Freethinkers and other nonbelievers; works for the total separation of church-mosque-temple and state; and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy.
Islam and Christianity are heating up against each other, between the NY Mosque and this idiotic book burning, and we are getting caught in the middle.
Of COURSE Islam is a lie, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to have books. Of COURSE a substantial segment of the Muslim population are literally terrorist-supporters, but that doesn’t mean we should feed into that by telling all Muslims where they can have a mosque. Of COURSE Christianity has similarly-barbaric roots and is a force for evil in this world, but that doesn’t mean it’s acceptable for them to use the god-hate to make matters worse.
This is about to escalate. The Muslims will strike back against the Christians. They won’t take the high road. When Muslims take the low road, I get worried.
Who benefits from strife between christians,muslims why it is the jews.Divide and conquer is an artform for that tribe.Is this a anti-semitic viewpoint or just plain fact?
GROAN – off we go again into the rabbit hole. Can’t you just stay on topic, instead of blaming the jews for everything?
KA
That is not a answer to who benefits from the strife.Dave says don’t burn the koran, okay what about when people on here were posting/bragging about destroying bibles in hotels.I didn’t see AA leaders telling atheists to go read instead.Screw the muslims you try taking a bible/torah into saudi arabia and it will be taken and literally thrown in the trash.Let the muslims get a taste of their own medicine.
And no i don’t really blame the jews but dave as a atheistjew needed to be tweaked for going soft on muslims who treat nonmuslims as 2nd class in home countries but come here and expect equal rights.A eye for a eye i say.
So do non-jewish arms dealers.
I’m actually going to have to write this day down on my calendar. You actually have a point. It’s actually a GOOD point. I’s flabbergasted, I is. Maybe Dave had best address this – I won’t speak for him.
Oh my – how biblical.
KA
When i saw this i just had to let you know.DNA test show Hitler had african,jewish roots.Haaretz had a article on it.I wonder what caused his hatred for jews.A strange case when you consider his family doctor was jewish and his company commander who recommended his iron cross award was jewish.A good old fashioned who dunnit.I wonder if we will ever know.
I’m going to take this as an admission that being jewish IS a racial trait. Besides, this is old news. Doesn’t everyone know that AH was like a 13th jewish?
People always go after convenient scapegoats, just like predators go for the easy meal.
reading the bible and koran are definitely prerequisites for understanding that it is all bullshit…..then when your done reading you can them for heating fuel….the paper is a bit rough for other uses….
Really? How so? Prove it’s a lie…
Really? Since when? Dave has always run from an offer to debate. Dave…my offer is still open. Where do you want to debate?
havnt you been debating on this blog already…..havnt your repeating regurgitated ramblings been been addressed not just by Dave, but by the many that post here…..
do you have more secrets to tell…..
Do you REALLY have that much fun wasting your time here?
Aaah yes, the Jews. How could I have been so blind? It was the Jews all the time. 9-11 in reality a plot for Jews to get more parking space downtown. I see it all so clearly now, the civil war, a Jewish conspiracy to sell sheets to the KKK. The Korean war, a Jewish plot to bring in Korean restaurants for them to eat at on Christmas, the Vietnam war, See the Korean war. Oh Christ, Dave how could you?
Phree dum dum, did you really ask why Dave or anyone wont debate you? Rotflmao, oh damn I needed that.
burning books is silly. You have to shred the books on disk too!
I agree with Dave. The Koran burnings will just give another excuse for a segment of the Muslim population to strike back at us. Media outlets like Al Jazeera and Al Manar will have a field day covering a Christian church in the U.S burning Korans. They will probably play it over and over again just like the American media would do if a mosque was burning bibles. Their media may give the impression that it is several churches doing this instead of one rogue church in FL. I bet most of these Koran burners have never even read what they are burning. What a shame, they may have actually learned something. I have to credit reading the bible as one of the primary reasons that I am an atheist today.
I also think the community center/mosque should be allowed to be built in NY. We have freedom of religion in this country which applies to all religions including Islam. What if American Atheists were trying to put their headquarters in the same place? I bet we would be seeing simliar vitriol from some. I just do not think, as atheists, that we should be hypocritical. Again, just like the Koran burnings, the middle eastern media is going to use this to show Americans as being intolerant, hypocritical, and not living up to the American ideals that we flaunt to the rest of the world. On my way home tonight I was listening to a self-proclaimed conservative radio talk show host actually supporting the location of the mosque. He made the points that the so-called mosque is actually a 13-story community center. Only one floor will be used for prayer and there will be no gold dome to signify it is a mosque. Also, you can not even see this mosque from ground zero. I thought this was interesting since he was getting crucified by his listeners, but at least he stood firm in his beliefs.
One more thing, I think we need to remember that the place where the 9/11 attacks were planned and where Al Qaeda was given refuge has a 36% literacy rate. That means that 64% of the Afghan population can not read and write. Although not all Muslim countries have such a low literacy rate, there is clearly a need for critical thinking in the Muslim world. Just as the Enlightenment was able to tame Christianity, Islam, too, needs a similiar force of reason.
Christians have a vested interest in inflaming conflict with Muslims. When the Muslims “attack the US” with a typical low-budget, high-casualty act of violence, it lets the Christians say “see, we’ve been fighting the people who attacked you for over 1,000 years, so you should support us” or as G.W. Bush said “you’re either with us or against us.”
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Christian-led national unanimity is the goal. Muslims do the same in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen. The outcome is war, terrorism, and death, which paradoxically benefits extremists on both sides. Ask a Christian fundamentalist and he/she will say the days after 9/11 were good-ole-days that they’d like to experience again.
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Why do you think Republican presidents for the past 20 years have launched wars in Muslim regions? Why do you think Christian fundamentalists in the 1940′s persuaded the UN to found Israel on top of Islam’s 2nd holiest site? For religion, conflict is a goal itself, not a means to an end.
THIS IS A REAL THREAT TO EVERY LIBERTY LOVING AMERICAN-SENATE BILL 3081.READ IT AND LET YOUR CONGRESS PERSON,US SENATOR KNOW HOW YOU FEEL.JOHN MCCAIN INTRODUCED THIS BILL IN THE SENATE AZ VOTERS DO YOUR DUTY IN NOVEMBER AND SEND THAT OLD FASCIST BACK TO PRIVATE SECTOR.