What is most likely to get lost in this discussion is that Muslims have the free will to restrain themselves when offended, if they so choose. Had they done that, Jones and Sapp would already be a forgotten sideshow.
The willingness to riot and to murder was already in place here; two Florida pastors did not create that. And the utter and obvious lack of connection between the UN office and one Florida congregation ultimately shows the Qur’an desecration was a pretext, as it so often is, even in fabricated local cases that lead to rampaging mobs’ abusing non-Muslims. That, too, will likely get lost in the discussion, which has tended to take the automatic, violent reaction of Muslims for granted, thereby tacitly excusing them from responsibility after being “provoked.”
That should not be the case. More on this story, which sets the death toll at 10. “At least 8 UN workers killed in Afghanistan,” from MSNBC, April 1:
KABUL, Afghanistan “” Afghan officials say eight people have been killed at a U.N. office in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif when a Quran burning protest turned violent. At least two of those killed were beheaded, Reuters reported.
“Strike at their necks” — Qur’an 47:4.
Demonstrators stormed the office Friday, opening fire on guards and setting fires inside the compound after reports that a Florida pastor burned a copy of the Muslim holy book on Sunday, March 20. The burning was reportedly part of a trial at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., according to USA Today.
The mock trial was overseen by the controversial pastor who last year halted plans to burn a Quran on the anniversary of Sept. 11. That proposal sparked protests and condemnation around the Muslim world.
Gen. Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in the north, says the dead included five guards working for U.N. and two other people employed at the complex. He says one other person was wounded. Later, a police official in Balkh province, said the injured person, who was a foreigner, died.
A spokesman for Balkh province, Munir Ahmad Farhad, says several hundred demonstrators were peacefully protesting the purported burning when the gathering suddenly turned violent.
It “suddenly turned violent.” Based on the behavior highlighted above, that “sudden” turn was clearly premeditated.
Jones said about 30 people attended the mock trial, held as part of the “International Judge the Quran Day.” He denied breaking earlier promises not to burn a Quran.