Friday in Afghanistan, an unhappy crowd gathered at a military base and a number of demonstrations became deadly. This apparently occurred during the fourth day of a fallout after NATO troops burned Qurans at a military base, officials said. One of these protests took place outside a U.S. consulate, which could have something to do with the fact that these demonstrations happened a day after U.S. President Barack Obama apologized for the incident at Bagram Airfield this week. In Obama’s apology, he referred to this incident as an “unintentional error”. During these protests eight people were killed and 27 wounded. The death toll includes six in Herat, one in Baghland and one in Nangahar. Unlike this one, other officers mentioned that the other protests that day were relatively peaceful.
What’s amazing about this particular situation is how the protests could have turned so violent when the original protests were over something so sacred. The article mentions that “Muslims believe the Quran is the word of God, so holy that people should wash their hands before even touching the sacred book.” So why would the demonstrators start “setting vehicles on fire, including police cars”. Could these people be considered religious extremists? Another thing I don’t much understand is how our leader could allow NATO troops to burn Qurans, and how it was an “unintentional error.” It seems as if they would know what books they were burning, or that they would have gone through some sort of process to get the Qurans in the first place. I worry that our political interference in countries such as this are just giving them more reason, aside from the evident war, to dislike our country, and that we are leaving a poor international impression. In addition, I also worry that we are leaving them worse off than they started.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/24/world/asia/afghanistan-burned-qurans/index.html?npt=NP1
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