The Gainesville event might be the final culmination of the age of hijackers, where a small group’s manipulation of a powerful vehicle has far-reaching disastrous effects. Only in this case, the vehicle is the Qur’an, not an airplane. And the manipulation need only be virtual. Never has book burning been so effective without even occurring. Symbolic actions on the internet and their consequences in the real world now occur almost simultaneously. And the threat of a symbolic gesture and an actual one become one and the same.
Laurie Patton
Laurie L. Patton is Professor of South Asian Religion at Duke University. She is the author or editor of eight books about early Indian myth and ritual, and two books of poetry. She has also translated the Bhagavad Gita for Penguin University classics series. She has written and lectured widely on interfaith issues, and religion, conflict and peace-building. She is a regular blogger for Religion Dispatches.
