4. Burning the Quran

In July 2010, an Evangelical Christian pastor preaching at a small church in Florida attracted the world’s attention when he announced his plan on social media to burn 200 copies of the Quran. Riots, protests, and angry statements from Muslim leaders followed. This book chapter investigates the way Arabic speaking YouTubers reacted toward the Quran-burning incidents that occurred in the West including the one involving US soldiers in Afghanistan in February 2012. The results of the study show that the majority of video clips’ comments were unrelated to the incidents (32.77%), while curses and insults against the USA, Terry Jones, or US soldiers constituted the second highest number of responses (21.56%) followed by neutral (17.09%), pro-Islam (13.09%) and anti-Islam comments (12.76%). Calls for a holy war against the USA made up 2.49% of the total number of comments. The study concludes that offline incidents cannot be easily forgotten online as commentators have never stopped posting views, mostly expressing anger and other negative sentiments.