2 killed in Afghan protest over Quran-burning plan

[Turborama]

Source: CNN International

At least two people were killed and four were injured in Afghanistan Sunday in protests against the pastor who had planned to burn the Quran in Florida, a local official said.

=snip=

About 600 people were at the protest which turned deadly Sunday, a spokesman for the governor of Logar province said.

Afghan security forces opened fire to prevent demonstrators from entering the offices of the governor of Baraki Barak district, Din Mohammad Darwish said.

He originally said one person was killed and five were wounded, but one of the injured later died, he said.
The protest lasted about three hours, he said.

And Iranian students plan to protest against the canceled Quran-burning on Monday, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/09/12/afghanistan.quran.protests/index.html?eref=mrss_igoogle_cnn#fbid=5tFS21of5oJ&wom=false

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Koran-burning protest turns deadly in Afghanistan

Protesters in a province south of Kabul try to overrun the local government's headquarters, and Afghan police open fire. Rising tensions ahead of Saturday's parliamentary elections add to the unrest.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times
September 12, 2010|10:59 a.m.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan — Two people were killed and about half a dozen others injured in continuing protests Sunday against an American pastor's plan — abandoned two days earlier — to burn copies of the Muslim holy book.

Violence stemming from the now-defunct threat by a heretofore little-known pastor, Terry Jones, illustrated the depth of outrage inspired in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the Muslim world over his church's declared intent to desecrate the Koran to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

The episode also showed the difficulty of tamping down anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan once popular fury has been whipped up by religious leaders and other organizers — a particular hazard in a country where many people are illiterate and word of the cancellation of the Koran-burning spread only slowly.

Sunday's lethal clash occurred in Lowgar province, south of the capital, Kabul. The province had been the scene of a much larger protest a day earlier that attracted more than 10,000 people. Initially peaceful, Saturday's protest took a violent turn as demonstrators hurled stones and tried to storm the provincial governor's compound.

Full article: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-afghan-protest-20100913,0,4630198.story

NB The protesters were killed by Afghan security forces.

[louis-t]

1. More blood on the pastor's hands.

Does anyone think he will feel responsible?

[msongs]

2. not really. the "protestors" are responsible for the outcome of their actions. nt

[Turborama]

3. Does that count for all protesters who are shot dead by police/army or just these ones? n/t

[ixion]

7. Well, not really... is protesting worthy of a death sentence?

I don't think so. It would most definitely be the Afghan security forces that are at fault.

[Igel]

8. Not sure I'd agree.

Most protests don't involve throwing stones and storming a governor's residence/office.

It's a stretch to say, "Down with the idiot in Florida" to trying to attack the local (Muslim) governor and overrun his compound. Then again, it's a stretch to say they were shot for protesting the non-burning of the Koran and not for their other actions.

[Turborama]

11. Who are you to define what a protest does or doesn't consist of?

The fact is, protesters were shot. Dead. For protesting. They didn't kill. They were killed.

Fuck! I can't believe I'm even having to spell it out like this here, of all places.

[Drale]

4. No

to him this just proves his point that all followers of Islam are a violent, "uncivilized" monsters.

[slackmaster]

6. I think his handling of the situation borders on genius, or perhaps just idiot savant

He knew exactly what would happen if he threatened to burn the books then changed his mind.

Now he can say "See, we Christians are capable of admitting that we are wrong and changing our ways so that we become better people. The Muslims are just a bunch of barbarians."

[Igel]

9. Ah.

It was said that anti-Semitism was the only form of racism in which the hater ascribed to his enemy far superior intellectual abilities. (I paraphrase.)

This has seen been shown to be not just non-unique but commonplace.

I rather like Hanlon's Razor, and find that it works just fine in this circumstance: Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity.

In this case, his stupidity, then the stupidity of many Muslim's. Of course, it begins and ends with malice, but I don't see the beginning intended to lead to the "middle" that we observed--the incredible amount of publicity--or the malice at the end.

[Turborama]

10. "the beginning" was "intended to lead to" the "malice at the end"

That fuckwit knew exactly what he was doing and the "malicious" reaction it would generate.

If you think he didn't, you haven't been paying attention.

[Name removed]

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