Four more killed in Afghanistan in rage over Qur'an-burning

And still, still, no one in the West has the courage to stand up and say to the "noble people of Afghanistan": "What madness has overtaken you? None of the people you have killed ever burned a Qur'an. And are your Allah and your Muhammad so fragile that the burning of one copy, or even a few copies, of a book of which millions and millions of copies exist, really hurts them so much that you think killing people who had nothing to do with it is a proper response? No killing is appropriate in this case, even of those who did this. You people have gone mad. All decent people should rise and condemn you."

"4 killed in Afghanistan amid outrage over Quran burning," by Nick Paton Walsh and Masoud Popalzai for CNN, February 25 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of protesters took to the streets Saturday across Afghanistan, the fifth day of demonstrations over the burning of Qurans at a U.S. base, officials said.

Four civilians were killed and 50 injured Saturday amid protests near the U.N. office in Kunduz, said Saad Mokhtar, head of the city's health department. Twelve police officers were among the wounded.

Gulam Mohamad Farhad, the intelligence head of Kunduz, said the protesters tried to burn down the U.N. building.

The fresh protests Saturday took place in various provinces, including Laghman, Paktika, Baghlan and Nurestan, according to a spokesman for the interior ministry.

In Laghman province, at least 15 people were injured when hundreds of protesters tried to attack the governor's house and office, authorities said.

Police and soldiers intervened, with some injured in the confrontation, said Abdul Rahman Sarjang, a local police chief. Two civilians and an officer were in critical condition, Sarjang said.

But protests in most of the northern regions ended peacefully, police spokesman Lal Mohamed Ahmadzai said.

Deadly anti-American protests erupted this week after NATO troops burned Qurans at Bagram Airfield, officials said. The burnings sent throngs of protesters to the streets and military bases, some chanting, "Death to America."

American officials, including President Barack Obama, apologized and said it was an unintentional error, but protests raged on nonetheless.

In a letter to his Afghan counterpart, President Hamid Karzai, Obama called the act "inadvertent."

"We will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, including holding accountable those responsible," Obama said in the letter delivered by Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

If it was "inadvertent," how does Obama intend to hold them accountable? If he is going to adopt Sharia to the extent that he thinks that anyone should be held accountable for this at all, is he going to adopt Sharia punishments as well? Will he have the U.S. soldiers whom he finds to be responsible for the Qur'an-burning beheaded? If not, why not? If burning the Qur'an is now a crime for Americans, and we are thus under Sharia, how much Sharia are we under? To what extent have we capitulated? Where does Obama draw the line, if anywhere?

At least eight people were killed and 27 wounded in protests Friday, mostly in Herat province, according to Sediq Sediqqi, spokesman for the interior ministry....

The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Allen, addressed the issue during a visit to a military base where two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday by a man wearing an Afghan National Army uniform. A protest over the burning of Qurans was taking place outside the base at the time of the killings.

"Now is not the time for vengeance," he said. "Now is the time to look deep inside your souls, remember your mission, remember your discipline, remember who you are. We'll come through this together as a unit."

Allen urged troops to show Afghans that the move was unintentional.

"Americans and ISAF soldiers do not stand for this. We stand for something greater than that," he said.

Yes: cowardice and dhimmitude.

A military official said the materials burned were removed from a detainee center's library because they had "extremist inscriptions" on them and there was "an appearance that these documents were being used to facilitate extremist communications."...

In the future, after all these embarrassingly abject apologies, no American authority will dare impede "extremist communications" that use the Qur'an.