Australia lawyer 'smokes' Koran, Bible pages

AFP/File – The pages of a Koran are seen on display at the al-Mansouri mosque in the ancient coastal city of Tripoli, …

– Mon Sep 13, 12:47 am ET

SYDNEY (AFP) – An Australian lawyer tore pages from the Koran and the Bible and smoked them on YouTube, days after a US pastor's threat to burn Islam's holy book triggered deadly protests and global condemnation.

In a 12-minute clip entitled "Bible or Koran -- which burns best?" Alex Stewart, who belongs to an atheist group, holds up the Christian and Muslim holy books before tearing out pages and smoking them.

At one point he lights what looks like a joint rolled from a page from the Bible, leans back after inhaling heavily and says "Holy".

The video, which has been deleted, was posted on YouTube over the weekend, coinciding with the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks and coming after American pastor Terry Jones threatened to torch 200 copies of the Koran.

Stewart's employer, the Queensland University of Technology, said the research lawyer is on leave following a meeting on Monday.

"The university is obviously extremely, extremely unhappy and disappointed that this sort of incident should occur," vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake told reporters.

Stewart's video, in which he describes the Bible and Koran as "just books", is deeply hurtful to Muslims, said Sheik Muhammad Wahid, president of the Islamic Association of Australia.

"There is no need for this kind of thing, just to create disunity and disharmony among people living in Australia," Wahid told Australian news agency AAP.

Stewart, an assistant organiser with a group called Brisbane Atheists, refers to the proposed burnings of the Koran in the United States in his video.

Florida firebrand Jones cancelled the event -- a protest against plans to build a mosque near New York's Ground Zero site -- but the furore led to two deaths in Afghan protests and strong worldwide condemnation.

"With respect to books like the Bible and the Koran, whatever, just get over it," Stewart says in the video which has since been deleted from YouTube.

In comments to Brisbane's Courier Mail, Stewart defended his right to freedom of speech.

"The video was a joke video, of course," he told the paper, adding that he was smoking grass clippings rather than marijuana.

"People do this stuff all the time and if people get really upset about this then they're taking it far too seriously."

Lady GaGa Delivers on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Advocacy

With more followers on Twitter than any other person, not to mention a penchant for picking up media attention every time she opens her front door, Lady GaGa is a big deal. And pop culture's most famous person (arguably) hasn't shied away from promoting various progressive causes, whether it's in denouncing Arizona's SB 1070 from the stage, or shouting from the nation's capital that LGBT people deserve full equality.

Lady GaGa's most recent activism, however, has focused on "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and getting the out-dated and discriminatory law banished into American history books for good. Last week she met with veterans who had been discharged from the military for being gay, a meet up orchestrated in part by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

And last night at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs), Lady GaGa showed up with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" on the mind (in addition to outfits that made her look like a peacock, and a deli counter come to life). Arm-in-arm with servicemembers discharged under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," GaGa took to MTV's pre-awards ceremony to champion a repeal. Then, from the stage after winning the first of her many awards, Lady GaGa once again championed gay servicemembers, and urged Congress to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" pronto.

And that's not the end of this story.

After the VMAs, GaGa popped up on the season opener of the Ellen DeGeneres show, where (meat dress intact) GaGa continued to call for the military to kick "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" to the curb.

"[Don't Ask, Don't Tell] violates so much of what we stand for as a generation. As free people, as America," GaGa said. "If we call Sen. Harry Reid on the phone, and we tell him to schedule a vote in the Senate this month, we can get [a repeal of "Don't Ask Don't Tell] to the President."

GaGa added: "It is a devastation to me, to my fans that are gay."

Think that's it?  Nope. The meat dress connects to it all, too.

"It's certainly no disrespect to anyone who is vegan or vegetarian," GaGa said. "For me, if we don't stand up for what we believe in, if we don't find for our rights, pretty soon we're gonna have as much rights as the meat on our bones."

Fashion as symbolism for activism. I dig it, though I probably side with Ellen DeGeneres a bit, in hoping that the next time GaGa hits the red carpet, she chooses to wear a dress made out of kale instead of prosciutto.

Photo credit: AlineGomes http://gayrights.change.org/

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

Crunch Time For Don't Ask, Don't Tell

Less than eight weeks separate today from the 2010 midterm elections, where prognosticators and pundits are all predicting that Democrats will lose seats in both the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. While eight weeks is a lifetime in politics, and anything is bound to change, it certainly seems like the next session of Congress is going to be more conservative than the current session of Congress.

Thus, the countdown to passing gay rights legislation has intensified, especially the defense authorization bill, which has a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" tied to it.

The Washington Blade is out with a story today, noting that Sen. Harry Reid is moving forward with plans to schedule a vote on the bill next week. That's sooner than some (more conservative) Senators want, but as has been made painfully clear by groups like Servicemembers United (SU) and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), it's do or die time when it comes to getting a legislative repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" through Congress.

Related Petitions

Sign Petition

4,806 People

Repeal Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 2010

Create your own petition »

"We are going to take it the floor next week to see where the votes are,” an aide to Sen. Harry Reid said to the Blade. So what does this mean?

In short, it means that proponents of repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" need to muster up 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to prevent a filibuster. Some folks, including Sen. John "I was for repealing 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' before I was against it" McCain, have suggested they might pull the filibuster option out of their hat. But to do so, he'll need 40 other Senators to join him.

The announcement that Sen. Reid is scheduling the vote comes amidst a flurry of public pressure on the Senate to follow through with a repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Both SU and SLDN have been lobbying legislators hard over the summer, and today the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) took out a full-page ad in Politico calling for the U.S. Senate to move.

"We all understand the unfortunate reality of politics is that windows of opportunity don’t come around too often. Yet we find ourselves in a unique moment of possibility," HRC said in their ad. "We’re not naïve to the limited amount of time left for the Senate to address many competing demands. But that only heightens the urgency of not letting this moment pass us by."

Those are some wise words by HRC. Add to this pressure on the U.S. Senate to take up "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by signing this petition here.  And don't let up. This is an issue we can win. Come November 2010, it shouldn't matter what the prognosticators and pundits say. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," should  be on its way out the door.

Photo credit: U.S. Army

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.

In Gingrich's 'Anti-Colonial' Comment, Confusion, Homophobia and a Glass House

Say what you will about Newt Gingrich, but the Republican leader knows how to cause a scandal, which is precisely what he did when he told the National Review that President Obama's political agenda hinges on a "Kenyan, anti-colonial" perspective.

Americans, claimed Gingrich, simply can't relate, and are understandably confused by the President's approach. "This is a person who is fundamentally out of touch with how the world works," said the former Speaker of the House.

Gingrich's was a loaded statement, and garnered a rapid response from the White House. "[Gingrich] is trying to appeal to the fringe of people who don't think the president was born in this country.", said Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on Good Morning America today.

Birthers, however, aren't Gingrich's only intended audience; he's also talking to anyone who believes, for lack of a better word, in fascist ideals. And, as we all know, fascism has no place for the gays.

Gingrich can't take all the credit for his comment. In fact, he readily cited conservative columnist Dinesh D'Souza's recent piece in Forbes, "How Obama Thinks." Though I'm loathe to provide a block quote, this text definitely deserves a read, simply for evidence of how many ways D'Souza manages to offend.

Our President is trapped in his father's time machine. Incredibly, the U.S. is being ruled according to the dreams of a Luo tribesman of the 1950s. This philandering, inebriated African socialist, who raged against the world for denying him the realization of his anti-colonial ambitions, is now setting the nation's agenda through the reincarnation of his dreams in his son. The son makes it happen, but he candidly admits he is only living out his father's dream. The invisible father provides the inspiration, and the son dutifully gets the job done. America today is governed by a ghost.

I can't really comment on the blatantly offensive, and undeniably racist, "Luo tribesmen" remark, nor is there any evidence whatsoever that the President's father, whom he barely knew, was a socialist. I can, however, take aim at Gingrich's "anti-colonial" hypothesis.

Colonialism isn't the hot topic it was during 67-year old Gingrich's childhood, when all of Africa remained Europe's playground, plundered and pillaged for the white man's wealth. When the nations began to revolt, many liberation leaders, like Algeria's Ahmed Ben Bella, tapped into the then-relevant socialist ideals propagated during the Cold War, when Soviet powers were saturating the continent's political systems.

Times have changed, however, and only Libya maintains a "revolutionary" government. Most of the other nations that dabbled in socialism, such as Mozambique, have evolved into democratic republics. Other nations, like Morocco, which achieved independence in 1956, have constitutional monarchies. None operate the "socialism" of which Gingrich and the Tea Party speak and so often associates with Obama.

With that admittedly brief history lesson out of the way, "anti-colonial" means something entirely different than what Gingrich intends: "anti-colonial" becomes any effort to overthrow an unjust, repressive, exploitative and often violent government or leader. If Gingrich's worldview considers "anti-colonial" to be a pejorative, then he's endorsing, however unintentionally, the erection and maintenance of a controlling, fascist government, a type of government that doesn't necessarily reside solely in the socialist realm.

Fascist governments are defined by rules and regulations: for example, Mozambique's socialist experiment failed, as did so many others, because their idea of "citizen" was endlessly restricted, thus leaving large swathes of the population out in the cold, and eventually leading to a civil war. Another example, also of the Socialist variety, comes from Cuba, where the revolutionary leaders for years ostracized, targeted and murdered gay men and women for not fitting into the "appropriate" Cuban identity.

The same has been done here, in the democratic United States, where a parade of leaders and officials have lambasted same-sex love as antithetical to the American dream, whether it be in regard to the nuclear family or protecting our nation from terrorists as part of the Armed Services. And of course the most obvious example of colonialism as fascism comes from the Europeans, who defined citizenship by race and religion. Colonialism, then, is any form of exploitative, repressive and overbearing government that restricts inclusion for a preferred social population.

For example, a government that represses gays would have colonial tendencies. Such practices are anathema to liberal democracy. Despite what Gingrich and D'Souza claim, being "anti-colonial" is a good thing; Nelson Mandela, one of the world's most beloved statesmen, was fiercely "anti-colonial."

Gingrich's "anti-colonial" comment not only reveals his regrettably myopic view of history, and politics, but suggests that he supports colonial practices that, in the end, run counter to our nation's ideals. He and his Tea Partiers, who so desperately want a uniform America, made in their heterosexist, capitalist image, become the colonists, and those who resist are transformed into liberationists, into freedom fighters.

Surely that's not what Gingrich wanted to convey, so I suggest that he choose his words a little more carefully next time. As for D'Souza: rather than choosing your words carefully, why not just keep them to yourself?

Photo credit: Full-Time Lover's Flickr  http://gayrights.change.org

Andrew Belonsky is a journalist living in New York City.