Reply #149: Time's editor Bobby Ghosh explained the difference... [View All]

[Turborama]

Chuck Todd: ...but talk about the story and for more on what it means for our troops, the mission and the safety of Americans in Afghanistan and our standing with Muslims around the world, Bobby Ghosh, editor of "Time" and Jim Zogby president of the Arab American Institute and author of "Arab Voices."

Basically, we have two sets of extremists. An extremist in Florida and a couple that took advantage of the moment to stir people up in Afghanistan. How much is this spreading around the Muslim World?

Bobby Ghosh: The real concern now is, Chuck, it spreads from here. That you have other small groups of extremists in other parts of the Muslim world who feel like they have to do a copycat thing. We saw that many years ago and much more recently with the Danish cartoons.

The thing to keep in mind that's very important here is that the Koran to Muslims, it is not the same as the Bible to Christians. The Bible is a book written by men. It is acknowledged by Christians that it is written by men, the story of Jesus. But the Koran if you are a believer, if you're a Muslim, is directly the word of God. Not written by man, it is trancscribed directly the word of God. That makes it sacred in a way it's hard to understand if you're not Muslim, so the act of burning a Koran is much more potentially much, much more inflammatory...

Chuck Todd: Directly attacking God.

Bobby Ghosh: ...than burning a Bible.


Full segment (incl. transcript), which is in fact a really good overall analysis: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/42383673#42383673

In videos forum: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x569488#569538

On YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoCo3WDj-hQ