Sacrilege and stripping- "worse than death"?

Muslims, especially Afghans, denounce reported abuse of the Koran by U.S. prison guards.

Their outrage reminds me of the Abu Ghraib scandal, where public attention focussed mainly on naked Muslim men being exposed to the gaze of Western women, on the men being forced to masturbate in public, etc. -- and far less on "mere" physical pain, injury, death.

Throughout the Afghan and Iraq conflicts, LESS attention has been paid to murders (and NON-sexual tortures) of prisoners. "Mere" violence apparently bores most of the public.

But psychological and symbolic issues
-- nudity and sexuality and religious sacrilege ---
these themes seem to excite more public interest.

Caveat: My remarks are based on coverage in U.S. mass media. I'm GUESSING that the same "double standard" applies in most media, both in the First World and the Third, and both in Muslim and non-Muslim regions. If anyone has any evidence on this point, confirming or negating this guess,
please publish it on the queer page of IndyBay
( http://www.indybay.org/lgbtqi/ ).

Being out of step with the mainstream, I believe that killing a prisoner is far more serious than inflicting pychological torture (by exploiting his nudophobia, erotophobia, or his religion). Evidently millions of people reject my view, since they're more "shocked" by symbolism than by real death.

Do they seriously believe that sexual humiliation, or religious humiliation, is "worse than death"?
If so, I wonder why they take death so lightly.
Maybe this shrugging-off of "mere death" is possible only for religious persons who believe the murdered prisoner will instantly go to Paradise?

Or does the imbalance have other explanations? Do most Yanks (as contrasted with some Buddhists and some Mexicans) fear thinking about death, and thus push it off the "front page" of their minds?

Or do some television addicts secretly enjoy hearing about "CFNM" ( try googling that acronym ), even as they claim to be "shocked, shocked, shocked"? What do YOU think?

-- SF queer
Friday, 27 May 2005


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