"LandepNews"
People Protesting Outside Bagram Air Base
About 2,000 Afghan people took to the streets on Tuesday protesting
an incident that happened at an U.S. military base, when Qurans and
other Islamic religious materials were burnt during a trash disposal.
The incident caused the highest-ranking American officer in Afghanistan,
general John Allen, to apologize for the situation, emphasizing that it
was no more than an incident, and that it was totally not intentional.
The incidental burning of Qurans sparked the anti-foreign sentiment
among the people of this country, which were already quick to believe
that the foreigner had no respect for their Muslim culture. This
sentiment comes after ten years of war, as the American troops prepare
to leave this country they invaded in 2001, soon after the 9/11 in New
York City.
The general said in a statement that there would be an investigation
into the circumstances of the incident. The people who protested in
front of Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, in Parwan province, shouted
“Die, die foreigners!” and fired hunting guns and threw rocks at the
base gates.
The chief of the provincial council said that the American
authorities in the base took him to a burning pit, where they showed him
some 60-70 burnt books, which used to belong to the detainees
incarcerated at the base.
Ahmad Zaki Zahed said that he could not make out how many of the
books were Qurans, the holy book of Islam, because some of them were all
burnt, while others were half burnt.
He added that five Afghan workers told him that two American soldiers
brought the Qurans in the garbage they transported to the burning
place. The Afghans said they attempted to rescue the books when they
realized they were the holy book. They showed Zahed burnt fingers by the
fire from which they tried to extract the books.
An Afghan army general which leads the military coordination in the
province is said to have discussed the matter with the tribal elders and
with the protesters in a bid to end the anger. He said that the people
were determined to continue their protest and that they were very angry.
“If the Americans cannot bring peace to this land, then they’d better
leave,” a person who was protested was quoted to have said.
Other protesters said that next time their religion is defiled this
way, they would protect the holy book of Islam from being desecrated to
the last drop of blood.
John Allen offered in a statement an apology to the president and the
people of Afghanistan, and thanked the people in the province for
helping them identify the error and who helped correct the situation.
He added that he was offering assurances and making promises that the
Americans would make everything to avoid that such things may happen
again.
In April 2011, people in Afghanistan protested against the burning of
the Quran in Florida, when a Christian pastor proposed that the Quran
be burnt on September 9, as a form of celebrating what happened in 2001.
On that occasion the crowd stormed a U.N. compound and killed three
staffers and four Nepalese guards.
The continuing night raids against insurgents, which killed innocent
people, and the scandal of the video showing four American soldiers
urinating on what seemed to be dead Taliban increased the tensions
between the Afghan authorities and the American troops, prompting the
president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, to protest them.
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