US: Burned books 'were extremist'
Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of rubbish at a US military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention centre because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions, a western military official said today.
The military official said it appeared that the Korans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees at Parwan Detention Facility were writing on the documents to exchange extremist messages.
Parwan Detention Facility adjoins Bagram Air Field, a US base north of Kabul, where more than 2,000 angry Afghans demonstrated against the incident.
The burning stoked anti-foreign sentiment that already is on the rise after a decade of war in Afghanistan. It also fuelled the arguments of Afghans who claim foreign troops are not respectful of their culture or Islamic religion.
“Die, die, foreigners!” the demonstrators shouted. Some fired rifles into the air. Others threw rocks at the gate of the base and set tires ablaze.
US Gen John Allen, the top commander of American and Nato forces in Afghanistan, apologised to the Afghan people and said the books were inadvertently given to troops for burning.
“It was not a decision that was made because they were religious materials,” Gen Allen told Nato TV. “It was not a decision that was made with respect to the faith of Islam. It was a mistake. It was an error. The moment we found out about it we immediately stopped and we intervened.”
The military official said that several hundred Islamic publications, including Korans, were removed from the library. Some of the publications had extremist content; others had extremist messages on their pages, the official said. The official said the documents were charred and burnt, but that none of them were completely destroyed.
“We will look into the reason those materials were gathered,” Gen Allen said. “We will look into the manner in which the decision was made to dispose of them in this manner.”
Gen Allen said he would issue an order spelling out how Islamic religious materials should be handled by the coalition.
“This was unintentional,” he said, adding that no member of the coalition deliberately set out to defame Islam or desecrate the religious materials of the faith.
In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident and appointed a delegation to investigate. He said initial reports were that four Korans were burned.
As word of the incident spread this morning, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the base in Parwan province. As the crowd grew, so did the outrage.
One protester, Mohammad Hakim, said if US forces can’t bring peace to Afghanistan, they should go home.
“They should leave Afghanistan rather than disrespecting our religion, our faith,” Hakim said. “They have to leave and if next time they disrespect our religion, we will defend our holy Koran, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body.”
Ahmad Zaki Zahed, chief of the provincial council, said US military officials took him to a burn pit on the base where 60 to 70 books, including Korans, were recovered. The books were used by detainees once incarcerated at the base, he said.
“Some were all burned. Some were half-burned,” Mr Zahed said, adding that he did not know exactly how many Korans had been burned.
Mr Zahed said five Afghans working at the pit told him that the religious books were in the rubbish that two soldiers with the US-led coalition transported to the pit in a truck last night. When they realised the books were in the rubbish, the labourers quickly worked to recover them, he said.
“The labourers there showed me how their fingers were burned when they took the books out of the fire,” he said.
Afghan Army Gen Abdul Jalil Rahimi, the commander of a military co-ordination office in the province, said he and other officials met with protesters, tribal elders and clerics to try to calm their emotional response. “The protesters were very angry and didn’t want to end their protest,” he said.
Later, however, the protesters ended the rally and said they would send 20 representatives from the group to Kabul to talk with Afghan parliamentarians and demanded a meeting with President Hamid Karzai, Rahimi said.
The governor’s office in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan called the incident a “shameful move by some stupid individuals.”
Zia Ul Rahman, deputy provincial police chief, said between 2,000 and 2,500 protesters demonstrated at the base.
“The people are very angry. The mood is very negative,” Rahman said while the rally was going on. “Some are firing hunting guns in the air, but there have been no casualties.”
