Quran Incident Sparks Unjustified Violence
A group of Afghan Muslim clerics are threatening holy war unless the U.S. turns over military interrogators who allegedly flushed a copy of the Quran down the toilet at Guantanamo Bay. First of all, while the clerics are understandably disturbed by these allegations, their call for holy war is an extreme overreaction. Secondly, the incident, as reported by Newsweek, has been denied by the Pentagon and now Newsweek admits their report may have been wrong.
Over the last week, the Quran incident has sparked riots across the Muslim world that have led to significant property damage and 15 deaths. Charging RINO has already taken Newsweek to task for their poor journalism, but what also must be pointed out is, despite the despicable nature of the alleged incident, rioting, murder and vandalism is an unjustified reaction.
Are certain members of the Muslim world so continuously angry that any insult can set off violence? Do these groups feel so powerless, so callously dominated that they are willing to wage holy war over the alleged actions of a single American interrogator? Some might argue that this anger has been spawned by the Bush Administration’s overly subdued response to Abu Ghraib. But just because the Abu Ghraib investigation has not indicted anyone up the chain of command in no way justifies the reactions to the Quran incident.
This current turmoil reminds of three truths. 1) Our military and government should work tirelessly to ensure that treatment of prisoners is within the standards set by the Geneva Convention—we cannot afford to give the hostile International community any reason to blame us for violent reactions in the Muslim world. 2) The American media must absolutely confirm any inflammatory incident before reporting on it—there is enough misinformation about America out there without our own media contributing to the problem. 3) There is, unfortunately, a reliance on violence over peaceful protest among too many in the Muslim world. We must be able to acknowledge their grievances while simultaneously condemning the violence. American actions might be used as the “explanation” for violence but, in the end, those that commit violent acts must still bear the lion’s share of the blame.
posted by Alan Stewart Carl @ 6:36 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
The US has succeeded in making the Nazis respectible.
Of all the overblown rhetoric I hear, I find little as vile as the comparisons of the US to the Nazis. Spend one minute reading about the crimes of the Nazis and you will uncover deeds 100 times more despicable than anything the US has ever done. Comparing America to the Nazis is more than rhetorical hyperbole, it is a flat out lie. There are ways to criticize our government without resorting to blatantly false and disgusting analogies.
This is a terrible article. The Pentagon has no place to mask journalism. Why would the Pentagon ever confirm that we, the United States, were desicrating the Qu'ran.
This incident is just one of many in a string of stupid actions by the United States military and disrepectful, disgraceful treatment of POW's. Well it's not even "W" for war. POC. Prisoners of George's crusades.
It is my understanding that the original source of the story was an interview with the three British detainees that were released from Guantanamo several months ago. In fact, that story was just published on Common Dreams a couple of days ago.
It's interesting how they are claiming no one knows where it originated.
An American allegedly desecrated the Koran, and a hundred Mullahs call for a holy war and cause death and destruction in their own country.
I am stumped.
Was there no progress in morals over the last 3000 years? is humanity still a set of tribes killing each other for insults and fighting over the alpha male position?
And if the people in Afghanistan and Iraq and so on behave that way, why are we letting them in among us? Their diseased behavior may be contagious.
Spend one minute reading about the crimes of the Nazis and you will uncover deeds 100 times more despicable than anything the US has ever done.
Probably. But where on the scale of despicable do the genocide of Native American Indians, slavery, Hiroshima, My Lai, and Abu Ghraib fall?
The US has succeeded in making the Nazis respectible.
By flushing a Qu'ran down a toilet, the U.S has made the Nazis policy of Concentration camps, gas chambers and belief in the supremecy of the Ayrian race respectible? I think not.
I would agree that these kinds of arguments are one of the biggest problem I run into when discussing any Iraq war-related topics. I personally never supported the war, and have spent plenty of time arguing with the pro-Bush crowd against it, but even I have started to get disgusted with the number of people on the left that make this comparison and believe it.
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