The remaining details of submission can be worked out later.
by John Hayward
02/27/2012
Afghanistan continues to be torn by violence after the burning of Korans at an American airbase, including more attacks on American and NATO military personnel. A car bomber hit a NATO base on Monday, killing nine Afghans. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and specifically described it as revenge for the Koran burnings.
Also on Monday, the Taliban claimed responsibility for an attempt to poison the troops at a U.S. base by recruiting a cook to put bleach in their food. Fortunately, no serious injuries resulted from the tainted food.
This followed the murder of two American military advisors in Kabul on Saturday, shot in the back of the head by a Taliban gunman, who was sufficiently well-placed to gain access to “an office that only people who know a numerical combination can get into,” according to the Associated Press. International military personnel have been withdrawn from all Afghan ministries for their own safety.
So far, the Obama Administration’s response has been limited to profuse apologies for the Koran burning, delivered directly to the Afghan president so many American soldiers died to install and support, Hamid Karzai. The Most Transparent Administration In History still won’t release the full text of the letter it sent to Karzai, even as someone dressed in an Afghan military uniform was pumping bullets into American soldiers.
In response, Karzai went on Afghan television to announce he had discussed the matter with “jihadi leaders” and “prominent scholars,” and was demanding the U.S. government “bring the perpetrators of the act to justice and put them on trial and punish them.” He went on to “condemn this vicious act in the strongest terms,” and describe his people’s sensitivities as “right and laudable.”
Note: he’s talking about the American troops who burned the Korans, not the Taliban dirtbags who murdered U.S. soldiers, along with no small number of Afghans. As reported by CNS News:
"The US government says that such act was carried out because of ignorance and lack of knowledge,” Karzai said. “This incident happened as a result of the ignorance of the US military officer about our vision about Islam and not recognizing the Koran. It was not deliberate."
"Today,” Karzai said, “we had a detailed session attended by jihadi leaders, prominent scholars, speakers of both houses--the lower house and the senate--the esteemed chief justice, vice presidents and other dignitaries and our government. We discussed the matter of the burning of the Holy Koran. Representing the Afghan nation and their pure sentiments, in fact the Islamic world, once again we call on the US government to bring the perpetrators of the act to justice and put them on trial and punish them."
Karzai also asked his people to “calm down” while they wait for that trial to get started.
Outrage spread well beyond the borders of Afghanistan. Iran, for example, asked that the United Nations Human Rights Council condemn the Koran burnings. Said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, “Undoubtedly, this deplorable act of incitement is a gross violation of human rights, hurting sentiments of Muslims worldwide.”
Iran’s Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami went much further, declaring that the Koran burning was “not a mistake,” but rather “an intentional move prompted by the hatred of America for Islam.”
Wow, those Iranians are sure fired up about this outrage against Islam! Say, you know what else happened in global religious news last week? Iran sentenced a Christian pastor, held prisoner for over 800 days, to death by hanging because he left Islam. As of this writing, it is believed Nadarkhani is still alive, and may be used as a political bargaining chip with the Western world. As a Fox News report notes, “death sentences in Iran can be carried out immediately, or dragged out for years.”
Funny that you haven’t heard a lot of global outrage about Nadarkhani. No one is demanding a groveling letter of apology from the Iranian head of state. Christians are not rising up in arms.
The Koran burning incident in Afghanistan marks one more surrender of the West to the basic tenets of Islamic supremacy. Islam is different. It is not treated like other religions, officially or by Western popular culture. Having accepted that principle, the remaining details of submission can be worked out later.
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) published a statement on Facebook in which he explains the true nature of the situation in Afghanistan:
I want to extend my sincere condolences to the families of the Army Colonel and Major who were killed by Afghanistan security forces over this “burning Koran” episode.
If we had resolute leadership in the White House, we would have explained that these Islamic terrorist enemy combatants detained at the Parwan facility used the Koran to write jihadist messages to pass to others.
In doing so, they violated their own cultural practice and defiled the Koran and turned the Koran into contraband.
The Islamic cultural practice and Parwan detention facility procedures support burning the “contraband.”
Instead here we go again, offering apology after apology and promising to “hold those responsible accountable.” Responsible for what?
When tolerance becomes a one-way street it leads to cultural suicide.
So these Korans were already defiled by the jihadis, and burning them would be consistent with accepted Islamic practice… if the proper disposal of defiled holy books was really the issue. But it isn’t. The real issue is the second-class status of the unbeliever. The rage in Afghanistan was sparked because infidels burned those Korans.
By issuing a quick public apology, and indulging fantasies about sending our soldiers to face trial, and probably execution, in Afghanistan, the Administration concedes the point that Islam Is Different, and accepts the dim view of unbelievers held by the distressingly large number of “extremists.” (Curiously, Western media doesn’t seem very interested in referring to the rioters in Afghanistan as part of that “tiny minority of extremists” who always seem to be "hijacking" the Religion of Peace.)
There is no sense that violence has compromised the ability of the rioters to air out their grievances in supposedly civilized circles. There doesn’t seem to be much outrage about the fairly large amount of Koran destruction that must occur during the frequent Muslim factional warfare, or the outright pogroms against particularly unfashionable sects.
When a series of cartoons deemed offensive to Islam was published by a Danish newspaper, the formerly courageous defenders of irreverent free speech across Europe and America suddenly muzzled themselves in an orgy of self-censorship, turning handstands to come up with noble-sounding reasons not to reprint the Cartoons of Doom. There’s a new show premiering on ABC in March called “Good Christian Bitches,” based on a novel of the same name. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the edgy free-speech adventurers of ABC to green-light a comparable show about Muslims, with a comparably disrespectful title.
Thus does a weak Western culture that generally prides itself on being agnostic, or actively hostile to religion, accept the tenets of the one religion that it knows will violently resist such disdain. It will be interesting to see if our shiny new Total State flexes its ObamaCare powers against Islam with anything like the casual arrogance it demonstrated toward the Catholic Church. I doubt it. Islam is different.
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To read another article by John Hayward, click here.
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To watch a video about Islam, click here.
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