Is the American flag on equal footing with the Holy Book of Islam? Glenn Reynolds seems to think so.
…people were asking why, if Newsweek thought Koran-desecration was so bad, it had no qualms about portraying a dirtied American flag in a trashcan on the cover of its Japanese edition. Chalk it up to cultural insensitivity, I guess. Insensitivity, that is, to American culture. There seems to be a lot of that.
Leave it to the ever increasingnly confused and ideologically challenged Instapundit to make a misinformed cultural assumption whilst stepping into a steaming heap of hypocrisy.
Comparing the symbol of a nation – a flag – with a religious text which 1.3 billion Muslim’s believe to be the divinely inspired final words of G-d is nothing short of insipid. Yet, Reynolds endeavors to raise the bar of American ideology. “Old Glory” as Holy relic, or so it would appear. Even at it’s most simple, Reynolds point alludes to the belief that the flag is on an equal footing with what many believe to be Holy text.
Yes, “old glory” is an important national symbol. But, no one claims that it was inspired by the hand of G-d. Call me silly, but last time I checked, Betsy Ross wasn’t being worshipped as a Prophet.
Reynolds is just silly in the extreme. And, he is guilty of exactly what he claims Newsweek is doing.
To my mind though, Glenn’s point is much more egregious than the Neweek cover. Why? Because
flags are symbols. And, sometimes flags are used
to convey a point which is contrary or insulting.
It’s the very role a flag is meant to play in a culture. You know… just like it says in a certain song we all sing now and then: “… And the flag was still there…”.
Nothing like being insenstive to the religious beliefs of a billion plus of your fellow human beings in order to make your nationalistic progaganda point and swirl the waters of diversion.
Chalk it up to cultural insensitivity. There seems to be alot of that.
Those who would raise symbols like flags to represent a higher ideology, that of the religious experience, are to be feared.
