From the Independent

UN staff beheaded as Afghans rage against pastor who burnt Koran

Twenty left dead after thousands of militants overwhelm compound in Mazar-i-Sharif

By Farhad Peikar in Kabul
Saturday, 2 April 2011


A protest by hundreds of people in Afghanistan against the ceremonial burning of the Koran by a US pastor left up to 20 people dead as militants overran a UN compound and beheaded foreign staff.

The attackers forced their way into the lightly defended compound during a protest by up to 2,000 people following prayers yesterday in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif. They overpowered the guards, beheaded two people, toppled a guard tower and torched part of the complex.

The protesters hurled stones at police, who responded by firing into the air during clashes that lasted up to three hours and left at least five of the protesters dead from gunshot wounds, according to witnesses. Mirwais Rabeh, director of the health department in Balkh province, said another 20 protesters were injured. All the victims had gunshot wounds.

A UN spokesman in Afghanistan said that seven of its international employees – including both UN staff and security guards – had been killed.

Pastor Terry Jones, who supervised the book-burning ceremony in front of about 30 people at a Florida church less than 10 days ago, was unrepentant, saying the incident in Afghanistan was "tragic and criminal". "The time has come to hold Islam accountable," he said.

The governor of Northern Balkh province said insurgents had taken advantage of the protest to launch an attack on the UN. German troops are also stationed in Balkh, and the Nato-led coalition said it had received a request for help.

Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles south-east of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

The Russian chief of the UN mission was wounded in the attack but survived. Nepalese Gurkha guards and local employees were among the dead. Other employees from Norway, Romania and Sweden were also killed, according to police sources cited by the news agency Reuters.

Russia called on the Afghan government and international forces to "take all necessary measures" to protect UN workers, in a statement issued by the foreign ministry after the attack. The UN said that Staffan De Mistura, the top UN diplomat in Afghanistan, has flown to Mazar-i-Sharif to deal with the attack.

The attacks appeared to be the deadliest response yet to the activities of the fringe Dove World Outreach church group, which sparked outrage across the Islamic world last year over its plans to burn the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. After days of damaging publicity and violent protests, Mr Jones cancelled his plans under mounting pressure from world leaders.

However, he conducted a "trial" of the holy book less than two weeks ago at his church when a "jury" determined that it was guilty of assorted crimes. A copy of the Koran was then set on fire by one of his associate pastors in front of a few dozen people.

Despite little publicity for the book-burning, it was condemned by President Hamid Karzai's office as a "disrespectful and abhorrent act" and he called on the US government to punish those responsible.

Thousands of demonstrators also marched through western Herat city yesterday and around 200 marched in Kabul, but those marches passed off peacefully.

President Barack Obama last night condemned the killing of the UN workers. "Their work is essential to building a stronger Afghanistan for the benefit of all its citizens. We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence," he said in a statement. The UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, speaking from Nairobi, described the attacks as "outrageous and cowardly".

The worst previous attack on the UN in the country was an insurgent assault on a guest house where staff were staying in October 2009. Five employees were killed and nine others wounded.

A bomb attack on the UN compound in Algiers in December 2007 killed 17 UN staff. The bombing of a hotel in Baghdad in August 2003 where the UN mission had its headquarters took the lives of at least 22 people.

The city of Mazar-i-Sharif has remained relatively peaceful, and was recently chosen as one of the first areas for a transition of security from Nato troops to Afghan forces.

Long-standing anger over civilian casualties has been heightened by the Koran burning and the recent publication of gruesome photographs of the body of an unarmed Afghan teenager killed by US soldiers.

The deaths were not the first to be blamed on the actions of Mr Jones and his church. Four men guarding the Christian community in Baghdad were killed last year following warnings by authorities that they were at greater risk because of the book-burning threats.

"Pastor Terry Jones is directly responsible for the murder of some of our people," the Baghdad-based Canon Andrew White told The Independent last month. "He [Jones] can try and say from the safety of Florida he was trying to make an important point. But it was an important point that killed our people."


The gun-toting pastor

Pastor Terry Jones first threatened to burn 200 copies of the Koran at his Florida church on the anniversary of 9/11 last year.

He backed off at the last moment amid warnings from every corner – including an alarmed President Barack Obama – that the Muslim backlash would be likely to cost lives. But on 21 March, he went through with hisunconscionable deed, albeit with slightly altered choreography.

Perhaps it was inevitable. Pastor Jones conducted a trial of the holy book after which a "jury" at his church determined, after eight minutes of deliberation, that it was "guilty" of assorted crimes. The book, which had already been soaking for an hour in kerosene, was then set on fire by an associate pastor, Wayne Sapp, using a barbecue lighter.

There was scant media attention this time, but enough that word of it leaked beyond the walls of the ironically called "Dove World Outreach" church to inflame passions among Muslims in the outside world.

And what did Jones, a gun-toting Harley Davidson enthusiast who leads a motley congregation of some 50 people in his church, have to say about it that day? "This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.

Originally Posted by Francois Cellier

And what did Jones, a gun-toting Harley Davidson enthusiast who leads a motley congregation of some 50 people in his church, have to say about it that day? "This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience," he said.

I agree with this statement. Getting beheaded is indeed a "once-in-a-lifetime experience."

Quote:

The protesters hurled stones at police, who responded by firing into the air during clashes that lasted up to three hours and left at least five of the protesters dead from gunshot wounds

That's restrained of them; I'd have fired into their heads. Sure, peace, democracy, respect for customs etc. but when you've got a population that's retarded enough to risk dying because some guy doesn't like their magic book I think that those horses bolted long ago.

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Pastor Terry Jones is no more to blame for the Afghan violence than Martin Scorsese was for the shooting of Ronald Reagan – Telegraph Blogs

Quote:

The American pastor Terry Jones might be a bit of a weirdo with an unhealthy obsession with the Koran, but he’s right about one thing: he is not responsible for the fatal rioting in Afghanistan. His burning of the Koran can no more be blamed for those acts of violence than Martin Scorsese can be blamed for the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981. (Reagan’s wannabe assassin, John Hinckley Jnr, claimed to have been inspired by Taxi Driver.) The feverish attempts to pin the blame for the Afghan instability on Pastor Jones demonises freedom of speech as something terrifying, even murderous, and it treats Muslims as brainless, wide-eyed automatons who can’t be held responsible for their actions. Jones’s burning of the Koran was daft. But it did not directly cause “the tragic, deadly violence” in Afghanistan, as one Pentagon spokesman claimed. To suggest that it did, to argue that Jones has “blood on his hands”, as the New York Daily News put it, is to overlook the fact that there is an important bridge between words and actions. That bridge is us, people, the audience, the public, who are possessed of free will and thought and who must make a decision about whether, and how, to act on the words we hear. The idea that words lead directly to action, that the image of a burning Koran in the US leads inevitably to violence in Afghanistan, is to cut out these middle men and present speech as an all-powerful force that dictates world events. Such an outlook is dangerous for two reasons. First because there would be no limits to the curbing and policing of speech if we all bought into the mad notion that it can directly cause other people’s deaths. If words really are so dangerous, then surely they should be treated as just another weapon, like gun and knives, whose usage must be tightly controlled by the cops and powers-that-be? Already, post-Koran controversy, some Democratic politicians in the US are hinting that the First Amendment, which guarantees free expression, might need to be rethought, since certain forms of speech “endanger the lives of a lot of innocent people”. The consequence of calling into question the free will of people who hear or read certain words is to generate an Orwellian rush to clamp down on anything judged to be “problematic speech”. And the second problem with the “blame Jones” brigade is that it lets rioting Afghans off the hook. It says they’re not really responsible for the bloodshed they unleashed; Jones is. There’s a great irony here, because many of the commentators who make this argument do so in order to express their apparently enlightened and cosmopolitan sympathy with beleaguered Muslims in Afghanistan, yet in the process they patronisingly depict Afghans as overgrown children, as attack dogs almost, who hear a command or see an offensive image and act on it, robot-like. Modern-day liberal pity for Muslims would seem to be a comfortable bedfellow of the old-world colonial outlook: in both instances Third World people are treated as hapless, helpless creatures who must have their eyes and ears shielded from dodgy ideas. The consequences of taking this approach to the Koran controversy are potentially dire. Just as in the Muhammad cartoons controversy, Western liberal politicians and thinkers are giving Muslims a licence to feel offended, a licence to go crazy; they are effectively legitimising violent responses to offensive images by saying: “It’s understandable. This is what happens when we fail to respect their culture.” Given a green light by self-flagellating Western observers, who will be surprised if groups of Muslims behave in a similar fashion next time someone pulps a Koran or depicts Muhammad as a goat?

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Originally Posted by Zichao

That's restrained of them; I'd have fired into their heads. Sure, peace, democracy, respect for customs etc. but when you've got a population that's retarded enough to risk dying because some guy doesn't like their magic book I think that those horses bolted long ago.

I posted this someplace else when this first happened. Quick rehash.

People give pastor Jones far too much credit. He burned the book over 2 weeks ago.

However just a week ago photos were dumped showing grinning US soldiers posing for trophy shots after killing Afghan kids. And least everyone forgets, just because Smarter Than GWB Obama took over the show, that doesn't mean Afghan civilians have stopped dying during US military operations. He's actually stepped things up, both inside Afghanistan and right across the border with nearly 10x the number of drone strikes bush carried out over 2 terms.

I'm sure news of the book burning did manage to reach some people... but I have a hard time believing thats what drove them to murder. When the Mohammad cartoons were published there was window smashing, some fires started, and bombastic rhetoric, but the only people who died during all of that were the protestors who were shot by police.

What took place a few days ago was a different beast. IMO it was blood for blood.

This book burning though makes for a good distraction for US policy makers though who can now avoid questions of how we're conducting the war, and the impact those headhunting photos will have.... at least for now. Its all just a bunch of crazy, murderous towel heads who don't respect free speech.

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Righteousness will always be the trap at the gates of hell

Originally Posted by AnonymousIdiotSavant

-- Its all just a bunch of crazy, murderous towel heads who don't respect free speech.

I don't think the concept of free speech is understood in the way you're thinking they don't respect it.

Quote:

The American pastor Terry Jones might be a bit of a weirdo with an unhealthy obsession with the Koran, but he’s right about one thing: he is not responsible for the fatal rioting in Afghanistan.

What a fucking stupid, idiotic, retarded view. I absolutely cannot stand this shit. The priviliged, protected and powerful are always outraged and absolve themselves.

Of course words are weapons you fool. Jesus wept, someone get this fuckwit to a remedial history class immediately.

Originally Posted by contracycle

What a fucking stupid, idiotic, retarded view. I absolutely cannot stand this shit. The priviliged, protected and powerful are always outraged and absolve themselves. Of course words are weapons you fool. Jesus wept, someone get this fuckwit to a remedial history class immediately.

Yes, because the Afghans are so stupid. Should bomb them some more and then sell them to the Chinese to work in clothes factories.

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Standard disclaimer: the disgusting statements contained in this post are the views of the poster, and unless specified do not represent the views of the moderators or the site's owners.

None of that makes any sense.

BNP election candidate arrested over Qur'an burning

Footage leaked to the Observer shows Welsh Assembly candidate setting fire to Islamic holy book in his garden


* Mark Townsend
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday 9 April 2011 20.41 BST

A senior member of the BNP who burned a copy of the Qur'an in his garden has been arrested following an investigation by the Observer.

Footage of the burning shows Sion Owens, 40, from south Wales and a candidate for the forthcoming Welsh Assembly elections, soaking the Qur'an in kerosene and setting fire to it.

A video clip of the act, leaked to the Observer and passed immediately to South Wales police, provoked fierce criticism from the government.

A statement from the Home Office said: "The government absolutely condemns the burning of the Qur'an. It is fundamentally offensive to the values of our pluralist and tolerant society.

"We equally condemn any attempts to create divisions between communities and are committed to ensuring that everyone has the freedom to live their lives free from fear of targeted hostility or harassment on the grounds of a particular characteristic, such as religion."

Owens, who has previously stood for a council seat, was last Tuesday unveiled by the BNP as a candidate for next month's assembly elections. Several photographs place him alongside party leader Nick Griffin, including one showing the pair embracing during a party conference.

The footage comes at a time of heightened tensions. Internationally, protests continued in Afghanistan last week against the recent Qur'an burning by the US pastor Terry Jones in his Florida church.

Jones's act triggered a wave of global violence that nine days ago led to protesters storming a UN Afghan compound, killing three UN staff members and four Nepalese guards. Police had feared that far-right British extremists might attempt to stir tensions here by replicating Jones's stunt.

Superintendent Phil Davies of South Wales police, who led the investigation, said: "We always adopt an extremely robust approach to allegations of this sort and find this sort of intolerance unacceptable in our society."

Owens was arrested within hours of police receiving the video. A second person, believed to have filmed the Qur'an burning, is also in police custody.

It is unclear when the incident took place, but the five-minute footage is already understood to have been circulated to extremists. There is no evidence that Griffin was aware of the film.

When Jones went ahead with his "punishment" of the Qur'an on 20 March it was initially largely ignored until it was streamed on the internet and preserved on YouTube.

The footage of the burning in Britain clearly identifies Owens, who is wearing a "Whitelaw No Surrender" T-shirt. The film starts with the Qur'an lying in a Quality Street tin before Owens begins dousing the holy book in flammable liquid and then setting fire to it. The camera zooms in as the Qur'an burns.

Saqed Mueen of the international security thinktank, the Royal United Services Institute, described the act as proof of the "globalisation of outrageous stunts". Concern over Islamophobic provocation among far-right elements is epitomised by the rise of the English Defence League, which was founded in 2009 and claims to have thousands of members in scores of regional branches.

The EDL's rise coincides with the decline of the BNP as a political force, evident during last year's poor general election performance. Although Griffin's party had 338 candidates in the parliamentary elections, a record number for a far-right party in Britain, its share of the vote in key seats fell.

The BNP fared little better in the council elections, failing in its concerted attempt to win control of Barking and Dagenham council and losing all but two of its 28 wards.

The news that a senior BNP figure has been arrested after a film showing him burning the Qur'an will only discredit the party further, according to anti-fascist campaigners.

Photographs show Owens at a Welsh Defence League demonstration with a group of alleged Nazis including Wayne Baldwin, who has been pictured posing in front of a swastika flag. The Observer has also been passed images that show Owens's face apparently superimposed on Hitler's body.

Owens was officially announced last week as the BNP's number three candidate for the South Wales West constituency of the Welsh assembly.

In 2008 he stood for the BNP in council elections, polling almost a fifth of votes in his ward but finishing last out of three candidates. His campaign posters at the time show him standing on a ticket against "mass immigration, enforced multiculturalism, political correctness".

Although the BNP announced a record number of candidates for the Welsh assembly elections last week, anti-fascist groups maintain the party is a fading force, claiming that it has struggled to field candidates in the forthcoming local elections in areas that used to be target seats.

BNP election candidate arrested over Qur'an burning | Politics | The Observer