Thousands of Afghans are protesting outside of the Bagram Air Base today after Afghans working inside the facility revealed that US military personnel were burning large numbers of Qurans at the base.
Though claims that US forces desecrated copies of the Muslim religious text have historically been denied, that does not appear to be the case today, as General John Allen, the current commander of the Afghan occupation, confirmed that the burnings took place and said he is taking steps “to ensure this does not ever happen again.”
Indeed, the US even took Provincial Council chief Ahmad Zaki Zahed to the “burn pit” which contained the Qurans. They told him that they did not know exactly how many of the books destroyed in the book burning were Qurans, but there were several.
A number of Afghan workers were also injured during the burning, when they realized that Qurans were being destroyed and attempted to pull them out of the fire, suffering serious burns.
One military official said that the book burning was a collection of “extremist” literature from the prison library, and said that Qurans were being used to “fuel extremism” among the detainees.
I still don't get all this Quran-buring thing. The Muslims should turn around and, not only do the same to the stashes of Bibles that plague this Earth but also, they should wipe their asses with them in public. After all, they would only be following the mandates of the Christian book of voodoo and 'doing unto others as others have done unto them.'
Why should the Muslims stoop down to the level of these idiots?
Because it seems like a much more reasonable and smarter alternative than killing themselves. Don't you think?
That would counter to what our faith teaches them. We hold Jesus, Moses, and all the Biblical prophets in high regard. We hold Zoroaster in high regard. Buddha too because he could be a prophet.
We don't have the option of retaliation in kind for book burning or incendiary libels to our prophet. When Muslims were secure, we ignored such provocations. Now, when we are powerless, ruled by puppets, and under multiple attacks, such insults cut very deep.
Yeah, ok. So killing each other because a bunch of mercenaries burn their holy book is not against Jesus/Moses/whatever invisible character they worship is not against their faith? Is that what you're saying?
Nice bigotry.
Really? Can you explain that? And do delve into details of how invading a sovereign nation with a different religion, slaughtering their people and even burning their holy books is not bigotry? Go right again, indulge me with your philosophical explanation of that.
Torture, book burnings, fake elections rampant with fraud that only elect the anointed one. This is now what you see wherever you see the American flag somewhere in the world.
Reminds me of old time herds of barbarians who after attacking a country used to burn books. The Arab nomaqds did the same to old Persia. They burned any book they could get their hands on.
Arabs did not burn books they translated them.
If you are pointing towards Gangaz Khan,then you are right but the bad news for Nathan is that he was no muslim nor Arab.Discretion is yours,read or stay ingnorent.
wish they'd kept it up. There are less than 20,000 titles in Arabic worldwide
What sort of lunatic even thinks about doing something like this? I'm no more for burning Bibles, the Talmud or whatever texts that just so happen to be lying around. How more Nazi-like do you have to be?
Surely, only an illiterate barbarian would burn books. Burning another man's Holy Book can only result in a violent reaction. Is that what the American occupiers want? Or are they so stupid that "they know not what they do"? I fear the latter.
"…only an illiterate barbarian would burn books…" No, not only. A fearful man (or country) will also do such. And the Christian preachers (some, not all) are preaching and teaching that we have reasons for fearing what the Muslims are doing. Supposedly, they are attempting to convert all to Islam and those they can't, kill. That is what the Christian preachers are preaching. So, in fear, the "Christian Soldiers" (not necessarily military) go forth to vanquish the Muslims. And since they can't kill them all – there are over a billion Muslim and only a couple hundred thousand Christians on the battlefield with weapons – a daunting task no doubt – they attempt to insult them instead. Piss on the dead, burn the holy books, strip them naked on front of women, using dogs to intimidate…these are the machinations of a morally deficient society.
And the majority of the recruits the US has been drawing are from the Bible Belt states – states with high poverty, high unemployment levels, and deeply ingrained religious fervor -and religious superiority. So, given that, it is no surprise that these types of events occur. It's what they were trained to do.
You have to sing the Horst-Wessel song while burning them. That part I assume they left out.
deliberate propaganda
equally suspect is the origin of the footage showing troops urinating on motionless taliban. The same folks who sent in legions of troops into iraqi mosques in full battle gear. Promotions matter among the upwardly mobile military
Muslims would not desecrate the Christian or Jewish holy books because they (in its original form, not the changed versions we have today) are considered to be scripture revealed to the prophets from God.
Just for the record, one recommended way to dispose of Qurans that can no longer be used (that are ripped, missing pages, etc.) is by burning them; it is in fact a respectful way to handle them. I haven't seen one article about this that's written by anyone who seems to be aware of that. (Apparently Terry Jones lost some of his enthusiasm for burning Qurans after he was told that.) Throwing them in a garbage pit would have been a problem, though…
Unnabdulla, are you telling us that those were well intentioned Americans who simply decided to "respectfully" eliminate all of their excess, old Qurans? I might inform you that although in the Muslim society books are not destroyed ceremoniously, in western society books are only burned out of hate and massive ignorance – it is just the way the lowest in our society do things.
I agree with your opening statement that Muslims would never destroy the Bible, because Mohammed stated, in the Quran, that Jesus was a profit and recommended that Muslims read the Bible. To destroy the Bible would be to destroy part of the Quran.
I dare not venture into what short and long term effects this stupid action will have on our ability to get cooperation in the Muslim society anywhere in the world. The "promise not to do it again" just sounds so flimsy. And I cannot find the place in the article where General John Allen apologized for such a barbaric attack against the Muslim community by those idiots in his command.
Yet, they seem to have no problem killing each when a mercenary burns their book. Seriously. I understand killing the perpetrators but each other? It even makes the head of the most open-minded, understanding and sympathetic of us spin. I guess in your world a book is worth more than the life of a human being. How sad!
As usual, the Penagon gives conflicting explanations for the misdeeds of the military. First, they said that burning the Qurans was just a mistake. Then they said that our soldiers will be given "sensitivity" training so they will respect other religions; ie, not burn other people's holy books. Obviously, being a B.S. artist puts an officer on the fast track to the higher ranks.
Yes! If no one is punished then the rest is BS PR.
You should see all the viciously anti-Islamic comments where this was reported on CNN. If burning the Koran was not a mistake, then it was a provocation. Why?
If the book was used to pass "extremist" messages between prisoners, then shouldn't the whole problem have been openly discussed and the books themselves, with the messages, be kept as evidence of this crime? Is it a case of "we don't need no stinking evidence"?
No, I think it was just that prisoners were being punished by removing all comfort, including their holy books.
No surprise about CNN, Yahoo, AOL and gaggles of other bile spewing numb nuts. The idiocy and downright close mindedness of the cretins who troll through those places is enough to make you throw up your hands and declare your immediate departure from this basket case of a country.
The state propaganda machine is doing its job to perfection.
Perhaps now the Gideon bibles in motel rooms will have to be chained to the night-table, lest some retaliation be visited upon them.
Do we have the dumbest military on earth, or what?
Yeah but also the most deadly and brutal and with the biggest and baddest weapons.
If they didn't want the detainees to read the Koran, why not just take the books and lock them in a room somewhere? This was beyond dumb.
Is there no end to USA stupidity?