Quote:
Originally Posted by MossadConspiracy
it doesnt because the question was a rhetorical one designed to make a point rather than draw out answers.
The dodge are the words "living in America"
Point is, one people decide that something is sacred to them. A book, a person, a totem, a flag, an icon, whatever. They demand that everybody else in the world respect it. Other people dont
If the American flag was as sacred to Americans as the Quran is to Muslims from Muslim societies (which it obviously isnt, so the premise is weakened), would it be wrong for a muslim in karachi to burn the American flag during a rally or a protest or whatever? The whole point of the act is to disrespect America and the USA. More importantly, would it be illegal? Or should it be illegal?? In Pakistan.
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Each country has its own set of laws. From what I can tell from Foxhole's post, the US doesn't have Holocaust Denial laws, but Europe does. If its relevant to the citizens of the US there should be Holocaust Denial laws in the US. If its not relevant, then they shouldn't. In the US, the flag does have a certain amount of "sacredness" if we can call it that. In America then, the US flag should not be burnt. There should be laws against it, if its a problem. In the UK, the British flag should not be burnt. But whether the US flag is burnt in the UK is irrelevant since the US flag holds no value in the UK. Likewise the British flag in the US. It's just a general mutual respect if they decide not to burn each others flags.
You asked about the example of Pakistan. If burning the US flag is a problem in Pakistan, then that issue should be addressed by the Pakistani law makers. From what I can tell, the US flag has no value in Pakistan, just as the Pakistani flag has no value in the US, but each country's flag is important to their own people.
Recently we saw in the case of the Danish cartoons, we were told that the Danish authorities couldn't do anything about the offensive cartoons, because according to their laws the Prophet (saw) has no value to them, so no offence was being committed. The situation is slightly different because Denmark has a sizeable Muslim minority, and one would have thought that as citizens their feelings might be taken into consideration. But clearly, for whatever reason, they are irrelevant to the Danish system.
Each country has to enact their own laws of whatever's relevant to them. Printing offensive cartoons is not against the law in Denmark, and burning the US flag is not against the law in Pakistan, because those items hold no value in those societies. But the US flag does hold value in the US, so it should not be burnt. And given the US's active minority of Muslim citizens, the Quran should not be burnt in the US either.