Written by Don Byrd
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
The Obama Administration is promising to investigate a recent incident in which many copies of the Quran were inadvertently burned by US military personnel in Afghanistan. Protests there have claimed the lives of at least 7, according to NPR.
The top U.S. and NATO commander, Gen. John Allen, quickly issued an apology and telephoned President Hamid Karzai and major news organizations to explain that a collection of religious materials, including Qurans, had been mistakenly sent to be incinerated. As soon as someone realized what they were burning, they stopped and retrieved what was left, Allen said.
Meanwhile, military leaders are responding with a new training mandate:
In an unusually swift response, U.S. General John Allen ordered the 130,000 international forces in Afghanistan to get fresh training on “identification of religious materials, their significance, correct handling and storage,” no later than March 3. Such an order would also apply to the 510 Canadian military trainers listed as deployed in Afghanistan.
