From Cox and Forkum:
In commenting on a National Review article by Paul Marshall, Robert Spencer reminds us what the Newsweek Koran desecration story is really about (hat tip Tom Pechinski):
There is no excusing Newsweek’s irresponsibility in publishing an explosive story that was false. […] The bigger story here, and the gorilla in the living room that no one wants to notice, is that flushing a Qur’an down the toilet should not be grounds to commit murder. Note the total absence of moral judgment in Marshall’s piece, except that which he directs toward Newsweek. His argument is this: Newsweek should have known that this story would lead to deaths. Therefore, they shouldn’t have printed it. But he says nothing whatsoever about a culture that condones — celebrates — wanton murder of innocent people, mayhem, and destruction in response to the alleged and unproven destruction of a book.
And as Robert Tracinski at TIA Daily noted earlier this week:
The real story is the West’s attempt to appease the Islamic fanatics by accepting their demand that the Koran be treated as an untouchable “holy book” — leading the absurd climax of Newsweek reporting damage to a *book* in an article about the alleged abuse of *humans*.