Two killed, dozens hurt in third day of Afghan protests
1 of 9. Protesters burn a U.S. flag during a demonstration in Jalalabad province, April 3, 2011.
Credit: Reuters/Stringer
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan |
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Two policemen were killed and more than 30 people wounded in the southern city of Kandahar on Sunday during the third day of protests across Afghanistan against the burning of a Koran by a militant fundamentalist Christian U.S. pastor, officials said.
Violence at earlier demonstrations claimed more than 20 lives. Ten people were killed and more than 80 wounded in Kandahar on Saturday. Seven foreign U.N. staff and five Afghan protesters were killed on Friday after demonstrators overran an office in normally peaceful Mazar-i-Sharif city in the north.
A senior interior ministry investigator said on Sunday the killers of the U.N. staff appear to have been "reintegrated" Taliban -- fighters who had formally laid down arms -- although the insurgents have denied any role in the attack.
Over 30 people have been arrested, from areas as far afield as southern Kandahar, western Herat and central Baghlan province, said Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman for the provincial governor.
With little sign of widespread anger fading, the governor also issued an order banning sermons which might "provoke the public." The violence in Mazar began after Friday prayers, some of them harshly critical of the West.
In Kandahar on Sunday, hundreds of people marched toward another U.N. office, again denouncing the actions of U.S. preacher Terry Jones, who supervised the burning of a Koran in front of about 50 people at a church in Florida on March 20.
The governor had promised a strong police presence and it initially appeared the march would end peacefully; many of the morning's demonstrators had drifted away before violence began.
There have been peaceful demonstrations in Kabul, Herat city, Jalalabad city in the east and northern Tahar province.
But anger unleashed on Saturday when protesters waved white Taliban flags, shouted "Death to America," burned tires, smashed shops and vandalized a girls' school returned to the city.
"The information I have is that two policemen have been killed and 20 others, including police, protesters and citizens, have been wounded," Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council, told Reuters.
Another 14 people, including two children, were wounded when protesters seized a gas canister from a shop and set it on fire, causing an explosion, Zalmay Ayoubi, the spokesman for the Kandahar provincial governor said.
WIDESPREAD CONDEMNATION
Western political and military leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, have condemned the Koran burning as well as the violence that followed, but their statements appear to have done little to placate anger across much of Afghan society.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who last week drew Afghan public attention to the burning, an event that initially gained little media coverage, on Sunday called on the U.S. Houses of Congress to join in the condemnation and prevent a repeat incident.
He made the request at a meeting with U.S. ambassador Karl Eikenberry and General Petraeus, his office said in a statement.
Eikenberry read to Karzai from U.S. President Barack Obama's earlier condemnation of the Koran burning, the statement said. It gave no details of Karzai's response.
Obama denounced the act of burning a Koran but did not mention Jones by name.
On Sunday, Petraeus joined the condemnation voiced by many other leaders, urging Afghans to understand that only a small number of people had been disrespectful to the Koran and Islam.
"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Koran," Petraeus said in a statement, which was also signed by NATO's senior civilian representative, ambassador Mark Sedwill.
ANGER CONTINUES
Around 1,000 people blocked the main highway from Kabul to Jalalabad earlier on Sunday and burned U.S. flags.
"We want the preacher who burned the Holy Koran to get a severe punishment," said 20-year-old protester Jalil Ahmad. "He is not a human being, he is a brain-dead animal."
In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, Jones was unrepentant and defiantly vowed to lead an anti-Islam protest outside the biggest mosque in the United States later this month.
The Taliban said in a statement on Sunday that Afghans were still ready to give their lives to protest against an offence that it said the West was not taking seriously.
"The U.S. government should have punished the perpetrators, but the American authorities and those in other countries not only did not have a serious reaction, but defended (the burning) to some extent in the name of freedom of religion and speech," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.
(Reporting by Ismail Sameem; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Paul Tait and Daniel Magnowski)
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It goes to show how misinformed you are to blame this incident on the religion. This violence is caused by the exacerbation of the already tense socio-economic conditions prevalent in Afghan society, which makes them less tolerant to any threats to their already unstable society. It is not the fault of any religion that they would carry out this violence.
Truly, extremists like the Taliban blame their actions on the hostility to Islam that they allege the West holds, while opponents to Islam say that their hostility to Islam is because of the Taliban’s hostility to the West.
Who is right? Who started this conflict. Terry Jones says this violence proves that he is right about Islam being violent, while extremists say this justifies their activities, and that the West is out to get Islamic culture.
This is not the fault of Islam, but rather on extremists on both side.
Where do you think the actual permission comes from which forms the ethical basis for visiting ‘grevious harm’ (Qurans words exactly) on other?
Read the Quran Chapter “THE COW” not even considering the justification of grevious harm and subjugation of other in the rest of the Quran text.
This is the Religious text ethic=ideas=motivation=terrorist action against other.
To say this does not represent all Muslims ignores the fact the same text which informs these terrible actions against other comes from exactly the same text informing the nature of so called moderate Muslims. Is it any wonder terrorist Muslims come from good Muslim families.
Not every one turns up in a suicide belt but clearly the Muslim culture enables this terror from generation to generation as it has from the seventh century. Muslims blame everyone else for their violence rather than accept their text is flawed and rightly challenged.
Extremist as everyone of us are formed by texts religious and secular which informs our subsequent actions. If the Islamic text does not inform Muslim violence (which the perpetrators say it does) which text does?
If you cannot answer this simple question your accusations are clearly false.
In response to your earlier reference of verses from the second chapter of the Qur’an, The Cow, I would like to elaborate on the meaning of these verses.
Firstly, I would like to point out that Islam differs greatly from Christianity in its “turn the other cheek” philosiphy, in that Islam allows for one to fight back in times of aggression. While Islam does endorse pacifism, it does not enforce. The verses you mention are dealing with the conflict between the Muslims in Mecca and their oponents. You have taken them gravely out of context. They urge the Muslims to fight back if the non-muslims fight them. But it also goes on to say that once the non-muslims bear down their arms, then the Muslims must lower theirs too.
This verse is conveniately forgotten by opponents of Islam who take these verses out of context, and drop out the following verse that go against their case.
Furthermore, in the same chapter of The Cow, the Qur’an goes on to say:
“There is no compulsion in religion. Surely, the right path is distinct from the crooked one.”
This clarifies Islam’s real policies. That one cannot force someone to come into Islam, since it is a matter between them and God. Surely, they have been given a free will to make their own decisions. If they refuse, that is between them and God, not us.
Obviously, these verses in the Qur’an go against many Islamic Extremist policies we seen in the world today, and provides further proof on how they cherry-pick verses from the Qur’an, with out taking into account their context and following verses, just to advance their own political agenda.
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