[extropy-chat] a frightfully difficult sacred problem

[Damien Broderick]

While all those ethicists are struggling with the terrible torment of stem
cells from embryos, spare a thought for the agonies of Iraqi clerics:

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/17/1071337033787.html

A bloody Koran has the Muslim faithful in turmoil
December 18, 2003
Paul McGeough reports from Baghdad.
[...]

there is something grotesque about the burnished brown ink in the
calligrapher's exquisite text - it is the blood of Saddam Hussein.

[...]

this is no ordinary publication - it is the holy Koran, the word of Allah as
dictated to the Prophet.


[...]

Ironically, much of Iraq's treasured literary and spiritual manuscripts and
the archives of a turbulent 7000-year history were reduced to smouldering
ash when the National Library was torched back in April. Scholars weep at
the loss, but now a committee of 25 Muslim thinkers has been appointed to
decide if this lonely survivor should also have gone on the bonfire.

Their task is not easy because of an appalling contradiction - for Muslims,
it is heretical to render the Koran in blood, an impurity that should be
washed away. On the other hand, the Koran defines absolutely their religious
beliefs and culture - it cannot be destroyed.

[etc]