Are They Burning the Koran to Defend Free Speech?

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Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444 Retired

GED/HEO

7-24-23

So I read in a Reuters report this morning that two guys from a Danish group burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen. This comes after a similar event in Sweden. In response there have been protests in Iraq, where the Swedish embassy was attacked, and protests in Turkey and other predominantly Muslim countries.

 

As I would with those who might want to burn the US flag, I support someone’s right to do that as a right of free speech.

 

However, free speech can have consequences and it’s a good idea to think about them, whether or not the activity has a positive outcome or a negative one. For me I consider whether or not the activity strengthens working class unity or divides us. Whether it increases class consciousness or undermines it and in both instances it is the latter.  So why do it.

 

The other aspect of this is the two guys that burned the Koran outside the Iraqi embassy in Copenhagen were part of a group that calls itself, “Danish Patriots”.  Patriotism, as Samuel Johnson commented, is the last refuge of a scoundrel, and groups that have as this term their central tenet are almost always, to one degree or another, nationalistic, racist and xenophobic or a combination of the three. So the act of burning books in public for them is not so much the defense of free speech but an attack on a particular group or religion, normally a minority or marginalized group within a community or state. If it was free speech, they never seem to burn the Christian Bible outside churches.

 

Also, with right wing neo-fascist elements who, due to the woke cancel culture adopted by so many on the left and liberal side of the spectrum, appear to be the champions of free speech, it is important to remember what their motives are. The fascists, white nationalists, and other neo-Nazi types champion the right to free speech as an avenue to building their movement that would deny the rest of us, society as a whole, the right to free speech.

 

With the rightward shift in US society at the top anyway, and the possibility of another Trump presidency (I can’t rule it out as I did that once and learned that lesson) given the political crisis the US is engulfed in, workers need to remind ourselves that Hitler came to power through the electoral process then banned all political parties on taking power.

 

I am still convinced the US working class and the working class internationally will enter the world stage in a significant way and try to resolve the crises we face that can end life as we know it on this planet. In the US in particular, the future and this process, cannot be a smooth one given the present situation with the working class without a leadership that is willing to confront the capitalist offensive and no political party of our own.

 

As I write, we have a huge strike in the billion dollar entertainment industry that is also having international repercussions, and the possibility of a strike by the Teamsters union against United Parcel Service. While it is possible given the profits at UPS, that some small gains may be forthcoming, we should not fool ourselves that Biden and the US Congress will not do to the Teamsters or the entertainment industry workers, what they did to the railway workers a few months ago. I am sure there will be another song from Jason Aldean and hopefully other country music artists supporting the strikers and all workers fighting for our rights and conditions--------publicly championing their cause.

 

We are witnessing the unraveling of the capitalist system and in this period, the response to threats to profit taking and the political and economic superstructure that facilitates it, will be met with extreme violence if necessary. Groups claiming the mantle of "patriots" will be leading the charge.