I know that it is April fools but this story as crazy as it seems is not a joke. A Quran was burned in Florida and thousands rioted in Afghanistan and killed 8 UN workers that had nothing to do with the original offense. Not only that, but two of the workers were actually beheaded.

On Sunday March 20 pastor Terry Jones apparently supervised the burning of a Quran before a small crowd at his obscure church in Florida. To their credit, the press in America really didn’t publicize the event. However, it became a cause celebre on the Al Jazeera news network and the burning was condemned by President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan and by Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari.

Today there were riots in several Afghan cities following Friday services. Thousands of demonstrators marched through western Herat city of Mazar-i-Sharif eventually attacking the UN compound in the city killing 8 workers, beheading two of them, and seriously injuring many others. The crowd had been incited into a frenzy by Muslim imams condemning the Quran burning in America.

According to the Florida church website, a Quran was burned by preacher Wayne Sapp on March 20 after a mock trial which was supervised by Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla. The church found the Quran “guilty of causing murder, rape and terrorism” and ‘executed’ a copy of the Islamic holy book by burning it.

The next day the story was picked up by all of the major news services in the Middle East including the Al Jazeera news network angering millions of Muslims.

Response: One is at a loss of words to explain why UN workers were somehow held accountable for the Quran burning in Florida by angry Muslims in Afghanistan.

However, months ago Terry Jones had been warned by the US State Department that a Quran burning could result in the deaths of Americans around the world. It is my feeling that this is probably not over and that more deaths could come of this unfortunate event.

Looking over different internet takes on the killings, some are blaming the Florida pastors, others the Muslim imams, while many are placing blame upon international news services particularly Al Jazeera for featuring the story ad nauseam.

From my perspective, all of the above are responsible and should be condemned for the 8 deaths so far and also for the numerous injuries suffered by personnel at the UN mission.

Particularly offensive to me is the participation of the religious leaders both Christian and Muslim who should be teaching peace and tolerance rather than division and violence. Ironically Terry Jones and others who think like him will feel like their hateful attitudes and actions are actually validated by all of the Muslim violence.           *Top

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