Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes draws our attention to "Amazon.com's Koran Desecration Problem," which has obviously received far less attention that the Newsweek Koran-flushing story. Check out the full story. Although it's possible that the incident really happened as reported, the demands being made upon Amazon are clearly unreasonable.
But as it so happens, it's hard for me not to doubt the veracity of the story in the first place. It's sad to say, but "hate hoaxes" are becoming more prevalent. Just recently at Trinity International University in Deerfield, IL, a minority student was caught anonymously sending racist hate (e)mail to fellow minority students in order to perpetuate the idea that Trinity was racist and dangerous. And two years ago a white seminary student at Bethel College in St. Paul, MN was arrested for spray-painting "White Power!" and a swastika onto his pick-up truck and then claiming that racists had done it. The more that the proverbial boy cries wolf, the less these sort of complaints will be taken seriously.
