Gaza: Christians issue a call for protection amid burned Bibles and violence

Father Manuel Musallem, head of Gaza's Latin church, told the AP that Muslims have ransacked, burned and looted a school and convent that are part of the Gaza Strip's small Romany Catholic community. He told the AP that crosses were broken, damage was done to a statue of Jesus (*), and at the Rosary Sister School and nearby convent, prayer books were burned.

Gunmen used the roof of the school during the fighting, and the convent was "desecrated," Mussalem told the AP.

"Nothing happens by mistake these days," he said. 

Father Musalam additionally told The Jerusalem Post that the Muslim gunmen used rocket-propeled grenades (RPGs) to blow through the doors of the church and school, before burning Bibles and destroying every cross they could get their hands on.

Well, I haven't seen anyone condemning this actual violence like everyone -it seems- (including the Catholic Church, more here) has condemned the announcement of the "Day of Koran burning" (or whatever), have you? From my point of view, the "Day of the Koran burning" is nothing more than a way for Rev. Jones to have some publicity,. The Koran has passages which are most regrettable but burning the book is not going to make them dissappear. If he wants to be effective in these grounds, he should study it and denounce those regrettable parts.

But that doesn't make the double-standards of most journalists and most politicians vanish. On the contrary, they appear much more real. It looks like a book (whatever its contents) is more important than a human being. And that someone threatening to burn a book is much more dangerous that someone who is actually using violent methods (with rocket-propeled grenades included).

(*) Note their deep respect for other people's faith but specially for Jesus, who Muslims say, is also a prophet of Islam. What would happen if in Europe some guys would enter a mosque and burn some Korans?

Cross-posted from T&P.