CAIRO: The Qur'an burning incident in Afghanistan is not dying down. The New York Times says that a series of events that led to the burning of Qur'ans at NATO's Bagram air base in Afghanistan last month could have been stopped at several points and was ultimately due to poor decisions made along the way. The burning, which happened on February 20th, sparked days of intensely violent anti-American protests across Afghanistan, which has left at least 30 people dead and strained already tense relations between the US and Afghanistan. The New York Times quotes a US official close to the joint Afghan-American investigation into the incident as saying at least six people involved in the Qur'an burning, including “American military leaders” and an American interpreter, could face disciplinary action. The newspaper says about a week before the burning, military officers became concerned that detainees at a detention facility next to Bagram Air Base were secretly communicating through notes written in books from the detention center's library. Two Afghan-American interpreters were told to sift through the books and set aside any that could pose a security risk. The interpreters identified 1,652 books for removal, including copies of the Qur'an and other religious books. A US official familiar with the joint investigation said the books should have been stored rather than burned. Maulavi Khaliq Dad, a member of the Ulema Council, the body of Afghan religious leaders, said he had conducted his own inquiry into the incident. He said some Afghan soldiers saw religious books in boxes awaiting removal. The soldiers told their commanding officer, but by the time he relayed his concerns to his American counterpart, the books were on their way to the incinerator. The newspaper says both US and Afghan officials believe the soldiers driving the books to the incinerator could not read Arabic and did not understand the significance of the holy books. An Afghan worker is said to have begun screaming when he realized the soldiers were burning what are considered sacred Muslim books, and he and other Afghan workers tried to extinguish the fire with their water bottles. Four books had been badly burned. US President Barack Obama and other US officials have apologized for the Qur'an burning. On Friday, the Ulema Council called the burning of the Muslim holy books a “crime” and “inhumane,” said U.S. apologies would not be accepted, and called for those responsible to be “publicly tried and punished.” The council also called on the US to end night raids and hand over its prisons in Afghanistan to Afghan control. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/VxhHT Tags: Afghanistan, Quran Burning Section: Latest News, Religion
