A Brisbane atheist is bracing himself for a criminal investigation after posting an online video showing him burning the Koran and Bible.
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Lawyer Alex Stewart appears to smoke marijuana using pages from the religious texts, before rating which "burns better".
The homemade video was posted on video sharing website YouTube on Friday.
It came after international condemnation of a firebrand pastor who threatened to burn 200 Korans to mark the anniversary of September 11 terrorist attacks.
Terry Jones was apparently persuaded to abandon the provocative ceremony by a promise to rethink plans to build a mosque two blocks from Ground Zero in New York.
Mr Stewart is a commercial contracts lawyer at Queensland University of Technology.
This morning he refused to answer phone calls.
The assistant organiser of Brisbane Atheists wrote on the group's website last night "do you think I am in trouble????"
He said the drugs portrayed in the video were lawn clippings.
"Obviously, the doob was a fake," he wrote.
But on the video, Mr Stewart pre-empts a police investigation.
"I probably won't appear on webcam again after the police come and arrest me," he says.
A spokeswoman this morning said police were not aware of the video.
During the 12-minute film Mr Stewart says he is performing an experiment to test whether the Islamic or Christian text is more conducive to burning.
He says people offended by the experiment are taking it "too seriously".
"It's just a f...ing book, who cares," Mr Stewart says.
"Like you can burn a flag and no one cares, people get over it so with respect to books like the Bible, the Koran, or whatever, just get over it.
"I mean, it's not as though they're burning your copy, they're burning somebody else's.
"That said, I don't think it's completely appropriate unless it's done for a good purpose, which I'd say I have done today."
There was mixed reaction from the 885 people who had viewed the clip as of this morning.
Brisbane Atheist members appeared to support the stunt, with one writing: "Good one Alex".
Another urges Mr Stewart do a second experiment and recommends which religious texts to use.
On his profile on the Brisbane Atheists website, Mr Stewart claims not to be a radical atheist.
“I consider there is insufficient evidence to support a supreme being and that there is even less evidence to support any particular religion,” he says.
