E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSThousands of Afghans protested against the unintentional burning of Qurans and other Islamic religious materials during trash disposal at an American air base. NBC's Atia Abawi reports.
Updated at 2:40 p.m. ET: KABUL, Afghanistan -- Thousands of angry Afghans protested outside a U.S. military base on Tuesday, some hurling rocks and firing guns in the air, after reports surfaced that American troops had burned copies of the Quran and other religious items.
The demonstrators — shouting "Die, die, foreigners!" — gathered outside Bagram airbase, an hour's drive north of the capital Kabul. Photographs taken by the AFP news agency outside the airbase, showed people firing slingshots and others holding charred copies of the Quran, Islam's holy book.
"The people are very angry. The mood is very negative," said Zia Ul Rahman, deputy provincial police chief. "Some are firing hunting guns in the air, but there have been no casualties."
"We Afghans don't want these Christians and infidels, they are the enemy of our soil, our honor and our Quran," said Haji Shirin, one of the protesters.
Qais Usyan / AFP - Getty Images
More than a decade after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.
"I urge all Muslims to sacrifice themselves in order to pull out these troops from this soil."
U.S. helicopters fired flares to disperse the crowd.
Seeking to quickly tamp down the outrage, the White House apologized for the burning of Muslim holy books in a pile of garbage at Bagram.
PhotoBlog: Afghans besiege US base in protest over Quran burning
Press secretary Jay Carney said the "deeply unfortunate incident" doesn't reflect the respect the U.S. military has for the religious practices of the Afghan people.
Carney echoed military officials Tuesday in saying that the Quran burning happened unintentionally, and that an investigation was being undertaken to ensure it didn't happen again.
The top NATO general in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, also apologized. He said religious materials, including Qurans, that were identified for disposal were inadvertently taken to an incineration field at the airfield.
"Along with our apology to the Afghans is our certainty and assurance to them, that these kinds of incidents, when they do occur, will be corrected in the fastest and most appropriate manner possible," Allen said in a statement. "We've been shoulder to shoulder with the Afghans for a long time. We've been dying alongside the Afghans for a long time because we believe in them; we believe in their country, and we want to have every opportunity to give them a bright future."
Allen said he has also directed all coalition forces in Afghanistan to complete training in the proper handling of all religious materials by March 3.
A military official with knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press the Muslim holy books had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. He said it appeared the Qurans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and detainees apparently were leaving notes for one another inside them.
Thousands of Afghans rallied outside a U.S. military base over a report that foreign troops had improperly disposed of copies of the Quran, including some being burned. NBC's Natalie Morales reports.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident.
'Very angry'
Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor's spokeswoman, said Qurans were burned inside Bagram, citing accounts from local laborers.
"The laborers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Qurans," she said.
Ahmad Zaki Zahed, chief of the provincial council, said U.S. military officials gave him about 30 Qurans and other religious books that were recovered before they were destroyed.
"Some are burned. Some are not burned," Zahed said, adding that the books were used by detainees once incarcerated at the base.
Latest killer of Afghan children: Hunger
The materials were in trash that two soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition transported in a truck late Monday night to a pit where garbage is burned on the base, according to Zahed, who spoke with five Afghans working at the pit.
He said that when the workers noticed the religious books in the trash, they stopped the disposal process.
Bagram also houses a prison for Afghans detained by American forces. The center has caused resentment among Afghans because of reports of torture and ill-treatment of suspected Taliban prisoners, with President Hamid Karzai demanding the transfer of prisoners to Afghan security.
Shah Marai / AFP - Getty Images
Afghan protesters throw stones toward U.S. soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest Tuesday.
NYT: Afghan girls pay price for elders' misdeeds
Protests raged for three days across Afghanistan in April after a U.S. pastor burned a Quran in Florida. Eleven people were killed when demonstrators stormed a U.N. compound in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, including seven foreign U.N. workers. Another riot in the southern city of Kandahar left nine dead and more than 80 wounded.
Meanwhile, NATO said three coalition service members have been killed in a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan. It did not give any other details about Tuesday's deaths.
Massoud Hossaini / AFP - Getty Images
A demonstrator holds a copy of the Quran allegedly set alight at Bagram airbase.
So far this year, 47 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan.
Earlier, NATO reported that a fourth service member died Tuesday as a result of a non-battle related injury, also in the south.
More from msnbc.com and NBC News:
- Red Cross negotiating pause to fighting in Syria
- Man arrested in Justice Breyer mugging in the Caribbean
- Afghan's sorrow: Cruel winter claims lives of children
- Barack Obama and Lyndon Johnson honored in Puerto Rico
- Sambadrome showdown: Inside Rio carnival's big battle
- Rocking out to hip-hop in the new Myanmar
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Leave a Comment:
I see we have quite a few JIM JONES ODUMA followers here today,don't worry they will drink the poison in NOVEMBER with Oduma
Those books should have never been in the garbage...they should have been put in the recycle bin.
Think Green!
I could'nt have put it any better than Trooper Tom. Your statement is symptomatic of the tribal and barbaric genes in these people that rear their ugly heads when the situation warrants it. The other day I took my son & daughter to the local clinic here for treatment. A local Osama Laden style bearded receptionist forgot to give me a number for my daughter after standing in a huge line. I politely brought it to his attention and do you know what he said? He said in Arabic ' I forgot...now say to me that there is no God but Allah'. I pretended not to hear that but he kept insisting I say it before he would give me the damn number....and so I refused & walked out.
Marlane and Bryan should move in together. That way combined they would have 1/10 of a brain.
The books were the property of WHO? If I was the owner of something and chose to discard it, that would be MY choice. The locals were not the owners of those history books.
Screw the Quran and the people that follow its contents. They belong back in the 400BC era where their mentality stopped developing. The have always been a brutal, male dominated mass of idiots that like to kill others. If they are not killing a perceived enemy, then they just kill each other for whatever reason their little undeveloped minds can think up. We have wasted our time even trying to bring civilization to the region. Pull our troops out, if the moron’s attack us again, send them to where they want to be anyway. They want to be dead so they can have their virgins, send them there in very large explosions. The Muslim religion is "not" a peaceful religion; it is a backward, brutal religion for people with pea-sized brains. To hell with the Quran, Allah, Mohamed and anything else that these idiots worship.
The Afghans are a crude and primitive people with nothing to offer the world (except opium)... Leave them to their own to kill each other and to starve themselves out; and when they cross their borders with their illicit drugs or with malice of forethought towards the outside world, kill them. Clearly, there is no value to the continued presence of modern civilization in this lawless, backward land. Recurring episodes such as this are nothing but proof positive of the assertion.
because obviously American stormtroopers are so morally superior...?
Who the he11 cares !!
Holy Toledo, Batman. The US Imperial Legions are run by moronic arse-clowns. The mind-numbing stupidity exhibited by our mercenary forces simply boggles the mind!
you'd fit right in
Ignorant people believing in fairytale's , people have started wars & killing each other for hundreds of years.
lets all take up serpents and dance, Lets preach the word while we molest childern, lets all remove our forskin because thats what god wants,die infadals I kill you.
The world will not be saved by religion, it will be destroyed by it and fools who try to cram it down our throat's.
by the way here is a picture of Alia ;p bunch of ignorant fools!!!!!
this is insane! then again all religions are insane. the amount of killing that goes on in the name of God is false. its all in the name of man.
You know what? You religious people need to get a sense of humor. If God is so great I'm sure he can take having one of "his" books being burned!
And that goes for ALL of you. Christians, muslims and jews. What a bunch of morons! For my part, I'm going to stick with the Easter Bunny.
I'm going with Bugs Bunny...way funnier
I wouldn't purchase the book, but if I had it, I would burn it too.
Before the printing press, to produce a Bible, Koran, or any book was very labor intensive. They had to be copied by hand by scribes, monks, or other literate people. Hand copied books were/are works of art and deserve special treatment and protection.
However, books today are mass produced by the millions. The Korans in question were not rare or 'special'. This is a case of Afghan Muslims just looking for an excuse to be outraged.
like they need another reason...
Amazing how primitive we are as a whole. Still holding strong to myths.
So, detainees had the Qran and when they were released/moved/whatever, someone, probably an illiterate who didn't know the difference, cleaned out the cell and threw the garbage in the garbage and it went to the incinerator. The problem is the incinerator.
Religion is the root cause of most conflict and war
Amen!
GET THE U.S. TROOPS OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!!!! Let the ignorant rageheads kill each other. No loss. They are all vermin. Islam is a false religion.
All religions are myths. Get real.
"Sincere apologies." "Improper handling" of the Koran was "not intentional." Worse and worse, General Allen, dumb and dumber! What you needed to do was promise swift and sure punishment for those responsible for the affair. Your not coming forth with any details leads the Afghans to imagine the very worst. Can it be that the truth behind the Koran burnings is that the men in the ranks are so fed up with our misbegotten American adventure in Afghanistan that they are resorting to extreme measures to bring it to an end? (Expect a cover-up, folks!)
Really ??? who gives a $hit some towel head got upset about burning his comic books
The Afghans will go back to what they do after we leave which is plant and harvest poppy as they have done for a very long time and we will go back telling them not to. We will NEVER WIN THEIR HEARTS AND MINDS so forget about that idea as they aren't worth losing more US or others soldiers over.
There is another war on the horizon with Iran soon so don't worry about life being boring without wars to follow on the news.
who gives a rats a s s the books were in the trash they burn the trash? im not seeing the problem here burn all of the rag heads Garbage
So it's OK for them to burn the bible but not OK to burn the Quran? what a bunch of hypocrites! Pull ALL our troops out and them them destroy each other. Not worth our time, effort or lives.
It is disrespectful to burn either ....This situation is too far gone.
I knew in January 2002, when we dug in like ticks for a prolonged war that it was a mistake and that we would live to regret it. We've gone from the people we liberated loving us to them hating us. This idea that we must rebuild a country needs to go away. We should have gone in and quickly slaughered as many al Quaida and Taliban as we could, leaving nothing but rubble behind us and then left.
ABSOLUTE STUPIDITY....I do not understand how we can continue to do such things....How on earth can we ever expect these people to tolerate our presence ????
I dont know how much longer we are supposed to tolerate there existence.
That's just ignorant ......I don't care for their belief system,, but I don't think any people/peoples have any more right to exist than another
Why are they constantly apologizing for burning their holy book, when they consistently burn our bibles and also churches. You never here about them apologizing, so there should not be any from our side. It is OK for them to do anything they want, but we are not suppose to be able to deliver in kind. Apologize my foot.
I understand your frustration ...but how does it help if we behave as they do? Its like a parent throwing a tantrum in retaliation of their 2 yr old....