Seven UN staffers were killed in Afghanistan when infuriated Muslims attacked a UN center. Four Nepalese guards, a Norwegian woman, a Swede and a Romanian all died in their office building in Mazar-i Sharif in northern Afghanistan.
Iran attacked Pastor Terry Jones for burning the Qoran. But it didn’t say a lot or make a major issue of it this time, which was interesting given how vocal it was last September. The lack of interest in Tehran may have stemmed from the Now Ruz holiday.
The Islamic Republic News Agency carried a story on th Qoran biurning and included a report on a meeting in Lahore, Pakistan, which concliuded, according to IRNA, that “Crusaders and Zionists are now openly committing blasphemous acts under the supervision of the Obama Administration and the Pope after their defeat in Afghanistan and Iraq.”
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Mohammad Khazaee, demanded that Jones be prosecuted. But it is no crime in the United States to burn a book, even a Bible or the collected writings of Abraham Lincoln.
Pastor Jones, however, is not Roman Catholic. And the Vatican termed the Qoran burningan “outrageous and grave gestur4e.” Jones is not part of any recognized church organization. His is a one-congregation faith.
Jones incinerated his Qoran on Sunday, march 20, with no advance notice. Aftereward, he told reporters, “We had a court process,” with Jones acting as judge. “We trieds to set it up as fair as possible, whichm, you can imagine, of course, is very difficult.”
He said all of about 30 people attened the mock trial at his Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida. They acted as a jury and condemned the accused to death by fire, much like a witch might have been executed centuries ago. He said the choice of execution by fire was slected by visitors to his Facebook page, who voted for incineration over shredding, drowning and firing squad.
The Council on Iranian-American Relations (CAIR) preferred to ignore the incident. “Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR said, “Terry Jones had his 15 minutes of fame and we’re not going to help him get another few minutes.”
The White House also chose not to give Jones publicity.
But the after the kiloings in Afghanistan, boith chose to speak out, denouncing Jones and the Afghan vioplence.
Hooper said CAIR wanted to ignore the burning because it knew the incident did not represent mainstream American thougtht. “We believe he’s just in the mode of pure publicity seeking,” Hooper said. “Evertybody has freedom of speech, in this, even freedom to do strupid and reprenensible things. But everybody also has the responsibility to act in a way that doesn’t harm others or doesn’t lead to the harm of tohers.”
At the White House, Presidnert Obama issued a brief statement Saturday saying: “The desecration of any holy text, including the Qoran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity. No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act. Now is a time to draw upon the common humanity that we share, and that was so exemplified by the UN workers who lost their lives trying to help the people of Afghanistan.”
The Islamic Republic has been silent since the sevenb UN staffers were murdered.