Newsweek as Science Fiction

So the Newsweek Quaran story is pretty much everywhere in the news and blogs -- although I think George Galloway v. Norm Coleman is infinitely more interesting -- and rather than offer any extensive personal opinions about the pot calling the kettle black, I'm going to recommend a science fiction tie-in. If you can find a copy, read "Written In Blood" by Chris Lawson. It's a (short) story about a biologist and his daughter. While on a pilgrimage to Mecca, they meet a man who has created a virus that encodes the Koran into human DNA. This obviously presents a real problem because it basically means shedding blood can be interpreted as desecrating the Koran. It's a great twist and intellectually challenging because you do have to wonder how your average Christian would react to the Bible being encoded into human DNA - personally I think it would lead to more book burning.

You can find a copy of the story in Year's Best SF 5 (there's a good review of the collection at Sfsite.com).