Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

Photo by Tobias Hellsten/ToHell via Wikimedia CC.

LET me make it crystal clear at the outset: I disapprove of the destruction of books—any books—especially when such provocative acts are committed by the likes of Rasmus Paludan, above, the extremist leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs.

Paludan’s latest stunt—the burning outside the Turkish Embassy in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, was intended to provoke hysterical reactions from thin-skinned Muslims around the world.

And it had the desired effect.

Yesterday (Tuesday) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ruled out supporting Sweden’s bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, venting anger over the stunt.

If you cannot show this respect, then sorry but you will not see any support from us on the NATO issue. Those who promote and turn a blind eye to this perversion have undoubtedly taken into account its consequences.

Turkey is sensitive about any hostile act toward Islam, and the President is looking to strengthen support from nationalists and the religiously conservative ahead of elections slated for May, according to the text below the video.

Protesters burning the Swedish flag outside the country’s consulate in Istanbul last Saturday. Image via YouTube.

Meanwhile it’s reported by ABC News that Egypt’s top religious institution yesterday called on Muslims world over to boycott Swedish and Dutch products.

The call by Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the Sunni Muslim world’s foremost religious institution, is the latest in a series of backlashes from the Muslim world over incidents in Sweden and the Netherlands.

Image via YouTube

In September, 2021, Paludan and a cohort tossed a Quran back and forth until it was reduced to shreds.

And on Sunday, Edwin Wagensveld, Dutch leader of the far-right Pegida movement, tore pages out of the Quran near the Dutch parliament in The Hague and stomped on them.

Al-Azhar called the desecrations an ‘’offence” to Muslims and said a boycott of both countries would be an appropriate response to governments that protect:

Barbaric crimes under the inhuman and immoral banner they call freedom of expression.

It was widely reported that Swedish police took no action against Paludan. Some stood smiling.

In Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, hundreds protested on Tuesday and condemned the desecration. Protests also took place in the two main Turkish cities, Istanbul and Ankara.

A confession: I once destroyed two weaponised Bibles

Both acts were entirely justified. The first happened when, as a teenager in apartheid South Africa, I witnessed a Dutch Reformed minister knock a a young black man to the ground with a bloody big Bible.

When I challenged the dominee, who had just left his church after a Sunday service, his justification for the assault was that the guy was “walking on a white man’s sidewalk on God’s day of rest.”

After helping the victim to his feet, I snatched the book from the preacher’s hand and threw it into the road where it was run over and shredded by a passing Austin A55.

Screenshot via Huck Magazine

Later, after I settled London, I spotted a street preacher, clutching a Bible, screaming abuse at nurses who had staged a walk-out over pay and conditions at St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington in 1988.

I intervened when he called the nurses on a picket line “filthy whores of Babylon.” I won’t reveal the names I called him, but they left him so apoplectic that he took a swipe at my head with the Bible.

I ducked, grabbed the book and tossed it under the wheels of a passing Routemaster bus.

Reacting to cheers from the nurses I took a bow, and walked away, but not before reveling in the sight of the loon on his knees amid rush hour traffic trying salvage what was left of his “Good Book.”

• Please help me keep The Angry Atheist going. You can support my work in three ways: via PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee or GofundMe.

If you spot any typos in this piece, please email me at freethinkered@aol.com. Use this address to send me links to stories you believe would be a good fit for this site.