Burning Islamic holy books, U.S. style

Not since the Nazis have I seen a book-burning as flagrant as the one that brought out protestors over the U.S. military burning Qurans in a pile of garbage at a US military base in Afghanistan.

It’s reminiscent of Ray Bradbury’s science fiction novel, Fahrenheit 451, the temperature at which paper breaks into flame. Stacks of books from different homes were burned in Bradbury’s novel in suburban streets, a community book-burn.

Huffington Post reported, “The White House is apologizing for the burning of Muslim holy books in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.” I’m sure that should do it for the Afghans.

“Press secretary Jay Carney says it’s a ‘deeply unfortunate incident’ and doesn’t reflect the respect the U.S. military has for the religious practices of the Afghan people.” Right, Right, a couple of weeks ago U.S. Marines were peeing on dead Afghan bodies, but over burning their books we have a deep respect for their religious practices.

“Carney echoed military officials Tuesday in saying that the Quran burning at Bagram Air Field happened unintentionally, and that an investigation was being undertaken to understand why it did and ensure it didn’t happen again.”

A Western military official said “the Qurans were removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages.” Carney didn’t address those specifics, referring questions to defense officials. “He said the administration was following the matter closely.” Oh, good.

It’s curious that wiki writes of Bradbury’s 1953 dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451, that it “ . . . presents a future American society where reading is outlawed.

“The novel has been the subject of various interpretations, primarily focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting ideas. Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about censorship, but a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which leads to a perception of knowledge as being composed of factoids, partial information devoid of context.” Sounds like the news or the latest sitcom to me.

As I remember the book, houses all had large-screen (wall-size) TV’s that lulled people into Sonambulance, a kind of sleep-walking that shut down their brains and senses, which is somewhat redolent of the U.S. today—from Super Bowl Sunday to the Academy Awards, or any evening of the week, from the ditzy “Housewives of Beverly Hills” to your favorite cooking show. So coming from this TV culture makes it easier to burn books, any books, let alone sacred books, with impunity, for U.S. service people.

Of course, in the middle of all this, The White House apologizes For Quran burning, reports Huffington. The story goes, “The White House is apologizing for the burning of Muslim holy books in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan.” I would imagine. And isn’t burning these books a form of outlawing them? Whether it was an accident or no accident?”

Friday, cnsnews.com reported, “In the wake of President Barack Obama sending a three-page letter to Afghan President Hamid Kharzai, apologizing for U.S. forces having mistakenly burned some Qur’ans at a U.S. air base in Afghanistan, the Taliban is calling on Muslims to kill Americans or beat them, and take them as prisoners.” In fact, the article’s title is THE Taliban’s Response to Obama’s Apology: Kill Them, Beat Prisoners, Take them as Prisoners. I guess the usual mea culpas aren’t working here.

In fact, one of the paragraphs emphasized, “We should not be satisfied with mere protests and empty slogans but the military bases of the invaders and their military convoys and their troops should become a target of our courageous attacks,” spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement directed to Taliban fighters and the “zealous and faithful people of Afghanistan.”

“At least one demonstration was planned in Kabul on Friday, and the U.S. Embassy warned American violent protests after the end of Friday’s prayers.” So, we’re off and running still one more time making enemies in Afghanistan.

“A Western military official said the Qurans were removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages. Carney didn’t address those specifics, referring questions to defense officials.” Well, folks, that is censorship according to the second amendment.

Meanwhile, AP chimed into the disaster with, Burning of Quar’an by NATO sparks Afghanistan protests. Not to go unnoticed, Deb Riechmann wrote, “Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. 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 Tuesday.” She got it all, the essential paragraph sound bite.

She added, “Parwan Detention Facility adjoins Bagram Air Field, a sprawling U.S. base north of Kabul, where more than 2,000 angry Afghans demonstrated against the incident.”

As I mentioned earlier, the burning stoked anti-foreign sentiment that already is on the rise after a decade of war in Afghanistan. It also fueled 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.

“U.S. Gen. John Allen, the top commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, apologized 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,” 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.” Sounds like some serious CYA going on.

“ . . . We will look into the reason those materials were gathered,” Allen said. “We will look into the manner in which the decision was made to dispose of them in this manner.”

“Allen said he would issue an order spelling out how Islamic religious materials should be handled by the coalition.”

Perhaps the Afghanistan people should take a tip from Ray Bradbury where every, man, women and child were expected to memorize at least one book, to keep the tradition of reading and oral literacy going on in a largely illiterate society. If they were caught in Fahrenheit by the firemen with books in the house, the books (and sometimes the house) were burned.

Importantly, “In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident and appointed a delegation to investigate. He said initial reports were that four Qur’ans were burned.” Is he going to ask for more aid based on the number Qur’ans burned?

“Early Tuesday, as word of the incident spread, about 100 demonstrators gathered outside the base in Parwan province. As the crowd grew, so did the outrage.”

Appropriately, “One protester, Mohammad Hakim, said if U.S. forces can’t bring peace to Afghanistan, they should go home.” They should have gone home about ten years, my friend.

“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 Qur’an, religion and faith until the last drop of blood has left in our body.” You can feel the sting of humiliation, the pain of insult in this dialogue.

Ahmad Zaki Zahed, chief of the provincial council, said “U.S. military officials took him to a burn pit on the base where 60 to 70 books, including Qur’ans, were recovered. The books were used by detainees once incarcerated at the base, he said.” Again, what a sad image this is.

“Some were all burned. Some were half-burned,” Zahed said, adding, “that he did not know exactly how many Qur’ans had been burned.”

“Zahed said five Afghans working at the pit told him that the religious books were in the garbage that two soldiers with the U.S.-led coalition transported to the pit in a truck late Monday night. When they realized the books were in the trash, the laborers quickly worked to recover them,” he said.

“The laborers 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.’” I agree totally. Shameful, stupid, ignorant, all the words apply.

“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.”

To make matters worse, “the Afghans were protesting last April 20th the burning of a Qur’an by a Florida pastor turned deadly when gunmen in the crowd stormed a UN compound in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and killed three staffers and four Nepalese guards.”

“Separately, officials in Helmand province in the south said insurgents beheaded four people Sunday night in Washer district on the charge that they were spies.”

“The militants told the local people that they were guilty because they were carrying satellite phones,” provincial spokesman Daoud Ahmadi said. Predictably, the cell phone says American. The iPod says you listen to music.

Also in the south, a NATO service member died Tuesday as a result of a non-battle related injury. The U.S. led coalition gave no further details about the death. So far this year, 44 NATO service members have been killed in Afghanistan. Hardly seems like anything next to the vast amount of damage NATO is doing wherever it goes. I think this one would leave even Ray Bradbury’s tongue tied.

Jerry Mazza is a freelance writer, life-long resident of New York City. An EBook version of his book of poems “State Of Shock,” on 9/11 and its after effects is now available at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com. He has also written hundreds of articles on politics and government as Associate Editor of Intrepid Report (formerly Online Journal). Reach him at gvmaz@verizon.net.