Sunday's Lansing (MI) State Journal carries an interesting article about prosecutors who decided not to file charges in an unusual Qur'an burning case. A 46-year old East Lansing, Michigan resident who was merely scraping by economically went out on the eve of this year's 9-11 anniversary, riding his mountain bike, and got drunk. He says his wife doesn't allow him to get drunk in the house. He carried with him a copy of the Qur'an. After he stopped 5 or 6 times for beer, he went down by railroad tracks, ripped pages out of the Qur'an and burned them. Then he rode by the local Islamic Center on his bike and tossed the burnt pages on the sidewalk. He bragged about what he did on Facebook, using as his profile picture one of the controversial Muhammad Danish cartoons. He turned himself in to police at his wife's urging, telling them that he was still "pissed off" about 9-11 and wanted to make a statement of disrespect.
East Lansing prides itself on being a diverse community However ultimately authorities decided not to file charges since the man-- still not identified publicly-- did not damage anyone else's property. He made no physical contact with anyone and the Qur'an he burned was his own. The only possible charges were ethnic intimidation (unclear on these facts) or littering (which would trivialize the incident). Charging the man would make his identity public for the first time. Lansing's assistant city attorney said he was also affected by the fact that police received e-mails from extremists on both sides. He asked: "Do we really want to endanger this person's life for a littering charge?" The local Islamic community has reluctantly accepted the prosecutors' decision. [Thanks to Ken Braithwaite for the lead.]
