Oz lawyer faces sack for Koran v Bible spliff stunt

An Australian lawyer faces losing his job after posting a video on YouTube in which he attempted to determine which of the Bible or Koran made the better joint.

Alex Stewart, an employee at the Queensland University of Technology and professed atheist, was satirising the recent controversy over Florida pastor Terry Jones, who said he was going to burn the Koran on September 11 before thinking better of it after a global outcry.

Stewart posted a 12-minute video, some of which can be seen above, entitled: "Bible or Koran - which burns best?"

In the video, Stewart holds up the Bible and then the Koran. He then proceeds to smoke two fake spliffs rolled from their pages. At one point, he leans back with the joint rolled with a page from the Bible and exclaims: "Holy!"

He then rates the two holy books out of ten for their burning qualities, giving the Bible a seven - more than the Koran, which, he says, left him feeling sick.

"With respect to books like the Bible and the Koran, whatever, just get over it", he concludes. "It's just a fucking book. Who cares? It's your beliefs that matter. Quite frankly, if you are going to get upset about a book, you're taking life way too seriously."

The video was later deleted from YouTube, although other users have uploaded edited versions.

Despite the fact that Stewart filmed his stunt in his own spare time, his employer was unimpressed.

The vice-chancellor of QUT told the Courier Mail: "The university is obviously extremely, extremely unhappy and disappointed that this sort of incident should occur. It may have occurred in the individual's private time or on a weekend - it doesn't matter."

Stewart has taken an indefinite leave of absence and has written on an atheist forum that he expected to be sacked.

But he defended his actions, saying: "The video was a joke video, of course... People do this stuff all the time and if people get really upset about this then they're taking it far too seriously."

Meanwhile, on the internet, the inevitable 'Save Alex Stewart' campaign was off to a surprisingly slow start, with only 69 people 'liking' the 'Support Alex Stewart' Facebook page by lunchtime today. ·