What Do You Think?

[Allegracrown]

all the other atrocities happening and no one does anything . . . but burn a book of hate disguised a religious book and this happens.

By the way isn't burning the quran is the correct way for muslims to dispose of warn, soiled or damaged copies of the book?
so what is the big deal?

oh yea . . . the wrong person (a non-muslim) did it.

So when muslims burn a flag or a bible or kill innocent people (Webster's dictionary definition of innocent people not the muslim's definition) should we riot around the world and destroy mosques, etc. etc. etc.?

Seems funny that the USA apologizes for this and at the same time arrest and threaten their own people for same things they over look when done by muslims.

something is very wrong with this picture.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17152705


24 February 2012

Afghanistan Koran protests claim more lives
BBC's Orla Guerin

"Apologies from US officials are not cooling anger on the streets of Afghanistan"

Thousands of enraged Afghans have taken to the streets for a fourth day, after US soldiers inadvertently set fire to copies of the Koran.

In the deadliest day of unrest so far, at least 12 people died across the country, as mobs charged at US bases and diplomatic missions.

More than 20 people have been killed since the unrest began, including two US soldiers who died on Thursday.

President Barack Obama has apologised for the Koran-burning incident.

In a letter to his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama said the books had been "unintentionally mishandled".

US personnel apparently put the books into a rubbish incinerator at Bagram air base, near Kabul.

Spreading unrest

Most of the deaths reported on Friday were in western Herat province, which had seen little unrest previously.

A group of demonstrators tried to attack the US consulate in Herat city, burning police vehicles and leaving several officers injured.

Hospital officials confirmed four people had been killed, but it was unclear how they had died.

Another four people died near the town of Adraskan, 70km (45 miles) south of Herat city.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan:

About 1,000 people took to the streets of Baghlan, north of Kabul, and one person was reported killed
In Kabul, hundreds of people poured on to the streets to take part in several rallies after Friday prayers; police said a protester was shot and killed accidentally when other demonstrators opened fire
Two demonstrators were killed in Khost province
Several thousand people protesting in Nangarhar blocked a main road
Reports say isolated protests have also broken out in Pakistan, where there is a tradition of angry anti-US rallies.

'Major error'

Earlier on Friday, Nato commander in Afghanistan, Gen John Allen, appealed for calm.

"I call on everyone throughout the country - Isaf members and Afghans - to exercise patience and restraint as we continue to gather the facts," Gen Allen said in a statement.

"Working together with the Afghan leadership is the only way for us to correct this major error and ensure that it never happens again."

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.

And the various apologies from Nato and the US have not cooled the anger on the streets, says the BBC's Orla Guerin in Kabul.

On Thursday the Taliban had called on Afghans to attack "invading forces" in revenge for "insulting" the Koran.

Last year, at least 24 people died in protests across Afghanistan after a hard-line US pastor burned a Koran in Florida.

[Allegracrown]

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/barack-obamas-koran-apology-no-balm/story-e6frg6so-1226280995571



Barack Obama's Koran apology no balm

AFP
February 25, 2012


THERE were fears of further violent anti-US protests in Afghanistan last night, despite urgent appeals for calm and an apology from American President Barack Obama over the burning of Korans at a US-run base.

Fourteen people have died in three days of bloody demonstrations, including two American soldiers, forcing Mr Obama to send a written apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai over the incident at the Bagram airbase.

The US embassy yesterday warned of further violent protests in which Westerners could be targeted, urging Americans to "avoid any unnecessary movement".

At least one demonstration was reportedly planned for Kabul and more were possible after Friday prayers, the embassy said.

An Afghan government delegation investigating the burning of the Korans called it a "shameful incident" but issued a call for calm in a country wracked by 10 years of war against hardline Islamist insurgents.

"In view of the particular security situation in the country, we call on all our Muslim citizens of Afghanistan to exercise self-restraint and extra vigilance in dealing with the issue," the delegation said in a statement.

It urged Afghans to "avoid resorting to protests and demonstrations that may provide ground for the enemy to take advantage of the situation" and pledged that those responsible would be held accountable.

Mr Obama's apology came in for strong criticism back home, as competition builds in a presidential election year.

"It is an outrage that President Obama is the one apologising to Afghan President Karzai on the same day two American troops were murdered and four others injured by an Afghan soldier," Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said.

"It is Hamid Karzai who owes the American people an apology, not the other way around."

The two Americans were shot dead by an Afghan soldier at their base in Khogyani in eastern Nangarhar province during an anti-US protest. The shooting came hard on the heels of a statement by Taliban insurgents urging Afghans to kill foreign troops to avenge the incident.

[Allegracrown]

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/23/world/asia/afghanistan-burned-qurans/index.html?hpt=hp_t3


Obama apologizes to Afghanistan for Quran burning

From Masoud Popalzai and Nick Paton Walsh, CNN

February 24, 2012

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Afghan rage over the burning of Qurans by NATO troops continued Thursday even after a President Barack Obama apologized for the "error."

Afghanistan erupted in violent demonstrations after the troops burned the Islamic religious material at the beginning of the week.

Two American troops were killed Thursday by a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform, a U.S. official said, asking not to be named discussing casualties. The gunman is thought to have been acting in conjunction with a protest outside the base, the official said.

In a letter delivered to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama called the act "inadvertent," Karzai's office and National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday.

"We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible," Obama said in the letter delivered by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Karzai said that he had appointed a team composed of Muslim legal scholars from the Ulemma Council and Ministry of Haj to travel to Bagram and investigate.

Obama's apology brought this rejoinder from GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich: "The president apologized for the burning, but I haven't seen the president demand that the government of Afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young Americans."
White House apologizes for Quran burning

The protest and shootings came as the Taliban called on Muslims to attack NATO military bases and convoys and to kill soldiers following the admission that NATO troops had incinerated the books at Bagram Airfield.

Afghan officials investigating urged Afghans to "exercise self-restraint" and "avoid resorting to protests and demonstrations that may provide ground for the enemy to take advantage of the situation."

The investigators called the burning "insulting and shameful," saying NATO officials had promised to bring the "perpetrators of the crime ... to justice as soon as possible."

"As the situation is still under investigation, it would be premature to speculate on any potential outcomes," said NATO International Security Assistance Force spokesman Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings. "Any disciplinary action, if deemed warranted, will be taken by U.S. authorities after a thorough review of the facts pursuant to all law and regulation and in accordance with due process."

Muslims believe the Quran is the word of God, so holy that people should wash their hands before even touching the sacred book. Desecrating the Quran is seen as an act of intolerance and bigotry.

At least two demonstrators also were killed in the exchange of gunfire near the base where the two Americans died, said Haji Mohammad Hassan, chief of Khugyani district in eastern Nangarhar province.

Two U.S. soldiers and seven demonstrators were injured in the clash, too, he said.

"We don't know who started the shooting first and what kind of guns were used, but we have started our investigation to find out the details of the incident," Hassan told CNN.

Another demonstration occurred near a Norwegian-run Provincial Reconstruction Team compound in Maimana, the provincial capital of Faryab province, a regional police spokesman said.

Afghan security forces prevented the 700 to 800 demonstrators from entering the compound, said police spokesman Lal Mohammad Ahmadzai said. They burned a few civilian vehicles parked near the compound, he added.

American diplomats in Kabul and the north and south of Afghanistan were on lockdown for a second day in the face of protests, U.S. Embassy spokesman Mark Thornburg said.

At least five people were killed Wednesday in demonstrations.

The commander of NATO's ISAF, Gen. John Allen, apologized Tuesday. The materials had been gathered for disposal and were inadvertently given to troops for burning, Allen said.

"It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam," he said. "It was a mistake. It was an error. The moment we found out about it, we immediately stopped and we intervened."

The Taliban on Thursday rejected the apology.

In an e-mail, the Islamist militia accused "the invading infidel authorities" of trying to calm the situation with two "so-called show(s) of apologies, but in reality they let their inhuman soldiers insult our holy book."

They called on Afghans to take revenge "until the doers of such inhumane actions are prosecuted and punished."

"We should attack their military bases, their military convoys, we should kill their soldiers, arrest their invading soldiers, beat them up and give a kind of lesson to them that they never dare to insult the holy Quran," the message said.

Afghan religious scholar Anayatullah Baligh said it can be appropriate to burn a damaged Quran to dispose of it, but that it should be done by a Muslim performing the act respectfully.

"I can't tell you whether Americans intentionally burned the copies of the holy Quran to make Muslims angry or if they did it mistakenly," he said, but said their "carelessness" was "a crime they have committed against the holiest book of 2 billion Muslims around the world."

A military official told CNN on Thursday that it was unclear how many Qurans were involved and that some had been partially burned.

The inability of most American troops at the base to read the texts could have contributed to the mistake, the official said, asking not to be named discussing an ongoing investigation.

A second military official said the materials had been removed from a detainee center's library because they contained "extremist inscriptions" and there was "an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications."

U.S. apologies have not appeased Afghans, who massed outside the Bagram base Tuesday, chanting "Death to America! Death to the Afghan government! Long live Islam!"

Protesters burned tires and threw rocks Wednesday outside Camp Phoenix near Kabul International Airport, the U.S. Embassy said in its official Twitter feed.

In Jalalabad, hundreds chanted "Down With America."

Authorities have questioned some troops as part of their investigation, but no one has been detained, a coalition official said.

Last year, when Florida pastor Terry Jones presided over what he called a trial of the Quran and burned a copy, Afghans took to the streets. In the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e Sharif, demonstrators stormed a U.N. office and killed 12 people. In Kandahar, three people were killed, and nine in another when police clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators.

U.S. officials condemned the pastor's act.