Protests against Quran burning held across the Middle East

He asked why “doesn’t the burning of the gays' rainbow flag represent freedom of expression.”

It does, you idiot.

The damage done daily by Islamists like destroying Buddha statues.

Wouldn’t want to be a white nationalist backpacker traveling around Asia or the Middle East right now.

About 12,000 Islamists from the Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan party rallied in Lahore, the capital of the eastern Punjab province to denounce the desecration of the Quran in the two European countries. In his speech to the demonstrators, Saad Rizvi, the head of the TLP, asked the government to lodge a strong protest with Sweden and the Netherlands so that such incidents don't happen again

They are within their rights to dislike certain expressions of freedom of speech.

The simple answer to this is that freedom of speech will inevitably lead to certain people not liking what is being expressed.

Happens.

He asked why “doesn’t the burning of the gays' rainbow flag represent freedom of expression.”

It does, you idiot

Beat me to it.

Why is Turkey part of NATO and why does it even have so much so over who can be a member ?

It isn't even anywhere near the Northern Atlantic Ocean - where both Finland and Norway are!!!

Time to review whether NATO should enjoy the Russian friendly Country Turkey within its Ranks.

Boycott Turkey !!

Wouldn’t want to be a white nationalist backpacker traveling around Asia or the Middle East right now.

I didn’t realize white nationalists even liked backpacking around Asia or the Middle East. I imagine backpacking around foreign countries would probably cure a lot of what ails white nationalists.

Why is Turkey part of NATO

Geography. During the Cold War Romania, Bulgaria and Albania were part of the Warsaw Pact. Having Turkey in NATO meant that in the event of a NATO-Warsaw Pact War Turkey and Greece would secure NATO's southern flank and the Turkish straits could be closed to the Soviet Navy, depriving them of access to the Mediterranean Sea. That was a big deal during the Cold War and why the other NATO member put up with the military coups and flaky civilian governments. With Romania, Bulgaria and Albania now firmly in NATO Turkey becomes less important.

Don’t they have anything else more important to be angry about?!

Sorry but, burn them all..

Don’t they have anything else more important to be angry about?!

You’d think so. Some of these demonstrations are taking place in Pakistan - a country with chronic governance failure and economic problems.

I suppose it benefits certain people to get people more riled up about burning books in a functionally secular country on the other side of the planet.

Pakistan used to be a liberal Muslim country, and Pakistan's Oxford educated PMs and Sandhurst trained Scotch drinking English speaking generals and military dictators (Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan among others) were patronized by the UK and US for that reason among others.

Nixon-Kissinger duo especially were very fond of Yahya Khan, so much that they turned a blind eye to the genocide perpetrated on his orders and in any case, a genocide of brown folks in third world countries did not attract much attention in the West.

General Zia-ul-Haq changed all that because apparently Pakistan's military armed, trained and supported by the West didn't expect to lose so badly to India, a poor third world country without any Western allies.

After much soul searching, the answer as per General Zia lay in Islamization because religion was the sole reason for the creation and existence of Pakistan and Pakistan's defeat came because it had turned its back on Islamic values. However, General Zia was willing to do the US bidding in fighting the Soviets and arming the Mujahideens so once again the West turned a blind eye to Pakistan's embrace of theocracy.

But it's difficult to go back once the genie is out of the bottle. The state of Pakistan today is the direct result of the American and British mollycoddling of Pakistan's military dictatorships.

Folks who know better understand that its laughable when the West comes out with statements on human rights and democratic values.

As soon as any "holy book" incites violence against people and things, it needs to be destroyed. Doesn't matter what it is.

On average, every day, 13 Christians are killed for their faith, 12 churches or Christians buildings are attacked, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested, detained or imprisoned, and 5 Christians are abducted for faith-related reasons. The vast majority of these crimes are carried out by these people. When this stops, I'll be more sympathetic to their gripes.

Christians are the most persecuted in the religions.

I am reminded of the 1970s ITV series “World at War,” narrated by Laurence Olivier….."Where one burns books, there one eventually burns people.“

But if extremists want to burn Gay Pride flags, then they should expect some ‘reciprocity.’

The vast majority of these crimes are carried out by these people. When this stops, I'll be more sympathetic to their gripes.

I won't.

But I won't be sympathetic towards Christians (or anyone) trying to spread their faith or change existing laws that impact others, especially non-Christians, where it isn't desired.

That "desire" needs to come from individuals seeking them out, not from a knock on the door, like they do here. When they show up here, I ask how much time they need and ask for equal time to show them all the error from their holy book or other teachings. They leave. They aren't interested in critically looking at their "faith" any more than illiterate Muslims are who are told by some old man in a rural village under an oppressive Muslim regime that women can't work, be educated or control their own bodies.

I don't mind people being religious, as long as it doesn't impact me or my family too much. I don't want it in fringe laws or in my face or their odd beliefs forced onto my kids (or yours).

In some Muslim countries, Christian schools are setup to entice parents to send their children for indoctrination away from Islam. So the parents choose a good classic education, with some other religion, for their kids, rather than have their kids remain Muslim. I know a few Indonesians that were raised this way. They are adults know and made a point to say they were Catholics to me. I have a real problem when any religion does things like that.

Religion is like smoking. We know it is harmful to humans, yet some people continue to claim it isn't. Eventually, the truth will finally be accepted by most of the world.