Legal Commentary

At Least Two ?Houses Used for Worship? Burned in Ethiopia Following Alleged Koran Desecration

By Eugene Volokh

ChristianNewsToday reports that there were many more attacks ? ?At least one Christian was killed and others injured when thousands of Islamic extremists set fire to 59 churches and at least 28 homes in western Ethiopia in the past five days, Christian leaders said,? with ?More than 4,000 Christians ... displaced as a result of attacks that began on Wednesday (March 2) after Muslims accused a Christian of desecrating the Quran by tearing up a copy, sources said.? Bloomberg News reports allegations of a smaller number of attacks (but that was as of Friday, while the ChristianNewsToday report is as of Monday). It also quotes ?Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon? as acknowledging that two ?houses used for worship? were burned, though stating that no-one has died and labeling it ?a very minor, isolated incident.?

I don?t know where exactly the truth lies, but I thought I?d note it, especially since there seems to be confirmation of at least two burnings. If anyone has pointers to more stories, outside those from advocacy groups (of which there are quite a few, see here), please let me know. Of course, sometimes advocacy groups are right, and sometimes they are more reliable than ostensibly impartial media; but on balance, I prefer to see some confirmation from non-advocacy-group sources (such as the Bloomberg News story I mentioned). Thanks to Paul Marshall (National Review Online) for the pointer.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on March 08, 2011 (boomark / email).