Koran Burning Sparks Outrage; Bible Burning Leads to Yawn

The Islamic Reformation -Benny Morris

Afghan riots, triggered by the burning of a Koran in Florida, resulted in some two dozen deaths.

Yet the burning of Bibles around the Islamic world - in Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iraq - is an almost daily occurrence and goes unremarked, and is often accompanied by the arson of churches and the murder of parishioners.

And these acts never trigger murderous responses by Christians thousands of miles away.

The world Islam conquered in the seventh and eighth centuries, largely inhabited by Christians, is today almost bereft of Christians, they having over the centuries been massacred, expelled or forcibly converted to Islam.

Since the seventh century, non-Muslims have not been allowed to enter the holiest cities of Islam, Mecca and Medina, whereas Muslims have freely accessed and lived in, and still live in, the holy sites of Christendom (and Judaism).
(National Interest)
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UPDATE: 

Should We Blame a Florida Pastor for Deaths in Afghanistan? -Daniel Pipes, PhD

On March 20, in a six-hour ceremony called "International Judge the Koran Day," Pastor Terry Jones convened a mock-judicial process in Florida that deemed the book "guilty of crimes against humanity," then set a copy on fire.

The event was intentionally ignored in the United States, in the hopes of limiting its impact, but little stays secret in the Internet age. Within two days, news of the conflagration had reached Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the country's presidents roundly denounced Jones, bringing his action to wide notice. On April 1, infuriated Afghans lashed out, killing twelve in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif; the next day, suicide bombers dressed in women's clothing attacked a coalition base in Kabul and street mobs in Kandahar again killed twelve.
 
However distasteful, Jones' act is both legal and non-violent. He is not responsible for the 43 deaths; the repugnant, barbaric ideology of Islamism is to blame. When will U.S. politicians realize this basic fact and stand up robustly for the civil liberties of American citizens? Critiquing Islam, tastefully or distastefully done, is a Constitutional right. Indeed, done intelligently it is a civilizational imperative.
[Fox News]
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