(MintPress)—US President Barack Obama issued an apology to the Islamic world, after the U.S. military burned copies of the Quran, a holy book for Muslims, in Afghanistan recently, but violence persists in the country as outrage over the action grows.
In a letter to Afghan President Hamid Karzi the President expressed regret that the “religious materials were unintentionally mishandled”, a spokesperson for the White House said.
The books were burned at a NATO airbase near Kabul, and US officials say the act was unintentional. US Military burned the Qurans and other reading materials which they believed may have been used by Afghan inmates to pass encoded messages between themselves at Parwan Detention Facility, which adjoins the base.
Last week’s apology prompted Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum to accuse President Obama of “weakness” on Sunday for apologizing for the incident. Meanwhile, another Republican presidential hopeful, Newt Gingrich called the apology as “astonishing” and undeserved.
Obama is not the first US President in recent years to apologize for the actions of military forces in the middle east, as President George W. Bush also apologized for abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, calling the incident “a stain on our country’s honor and our country’s reputation”
Why the unrest continues
However, despite the President’s apology, unrest continued Monday, with days of chaotic street battles leaving over 30 people dead, including two U.S. military officers who were killed Saturday, a reporter embedded in Afghanistan for the Los Angeles Times reported.
Many Americans don’t understand why those within the Muslim world aren’t able to just turn the other cheek on the incident, especially after the US Commander-in-Chief issued an apology.
But for devout Muslims, the act itself is being seen as grave instance of disrespect – yet another one perpetrated by the US military while engaged in efforts abroad.
For example, the group of US Marines who desecrated the dead bodies of alleged Taliban fighters a few months ago, by urinating on them. Not only did that action violate international laws of warfare, but it placed further strain on tenuous U.S.-Afghan relations. So for many within the Muslim world, burning the Quran is perhaps just the tip of the ice berg.
How Muslim holy books are to be disposed of
While some have pointed out that burning is an acceptable method to dispose of unwanted holy books within Islam, Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, director of outreach for the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va., told National Public Radio that “The traditional way of disposing of used or damaged copies of the text of the Quran is by burning it,” however that doesn’t include burning it with the trash, which is what happened in Afghanistan.
According to tradition, copies of the holy book, believed to contain the literal word of God, may also be disposed of by burying it in something pure, and placing it in the ground at a location where people do not normally walk, or by weighing it down with something heavy and sinking into a body of water.Tradition also states that the intent behind the action must be respectful. For example, if a particular copy of the book has become too difficult to read with age, then it would be permissible to destroy it.
It is also permitted for non-Muslims to dispose of copies of the book in this manner, again, so long as the intent is respectful, Abdul-Malik confirmed. However, the fact that the books in Afghanistan were not treated with respect is what has garnered the ire of many Muslims.
And US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton is backing President Obama’s apology, telling CNN, “It was the right thing to do to have our president on record as saying this was not intentional, we deeply regret it,” Clinton added that she is “hoping that voices inside Afghanistan will join that of President Karzai and others in speaking out to try to calm the situation. It is out of hand and it needs to stop.”
What book burning symbolizes
Foreign policy expert Allison Stanger recently questioned how the action helps the US further its purported purpose in Afghanistan of winning the “hearts and minds” of the country’s people, writing that this “latest incident provides further evidence that our armed forces have begun to lose touch with why we are fighting in the first place. Their frustration is understandable, but we should never implicitly condone American soldiers burning books as a means to defending freedom.”
Stanger also calls into question why those who were responsible for burning the books didn’t realize that it would be seen as an “offensive and inflammatory act” after the US has been involved in activities in Afghanistan for over a decade, and moreover she asks, “ What were American forces doing burning books of any kind in Afghanistan, let alone Islam’s most sacred text? Book burning is not something typically associated with freedom-of-speech-loving America. When books are burned in a country desperately in need of more books, where only 43% of men and 12% of women are literate, it should prompt questions.”
Book burning has a long history in human civilization of symbolizing, in a very powerful way, how one regime seeks to censor or silence an aspect of another faction’s culture, and assert political hegemony over that nation.
Examples of this stretch as far back as human history is recorded, and some of the most famed incidents include obliteration of the Library of Baghdad during the Mongol invasion of 1258, the burning of books and burying of scholars under China’s Qin Dynasty in ancient China, the destruction of Aztec codices by Itzcoatl, in order to develop a state-sanctioned history and mythos, and the Nazi book burnings in which the Nazi regime ceremonially burned all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.
According to an encyclopedia entry found on the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s website, providing information on the history and significance of the act, “the burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or political opposition to the materials in question”.
The website also reminds viewers that as nineteenth century German Jewish poet Heinrich Heine wrote, “Where they burn books, they will also ultimately burn people.”
Burning of holy books in Afghanistan and subsequent riots have been viewed as one of the most sustained outbreaks of civil unrest in Afghanistan since the start of the war, but perhaps the real tragedy is that “Even if the protests show signs of ebbing, lasting damage may have been done to what the Americans regard as essential partnerships with the Afghan government and security forces,” as foreign correspondent Laura King points out.