Barbarism in Afghanistan: UN workers slaughtered over Quran-burning in Florida

Islamic mob stormed the UN office in Kabul and took life of its seven foreign staffs.

From the Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-as-afghanistan,0,6398486.story

Afghans angry over burning of Quran in Florida storm UN office, killing 7 foreigners

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghans angry over the burning of a Quran at a small Florida church stormed a U.N. compound in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing seven foreigners, including four Nepalese guards.

Afghan authorities suspect insurgents melded into the mob and they announced the arrest of more than 20 people, including a militant they suspect was the ringleader of the assault in Mazar-i-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh province. The suspect was an insurgent from Kapisa province, a hotbed of militancy about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of the city, said Rawof Taj, deputy provincial police chief.

The topic of Quran burning stirred outrage among millions of Muslims and others worldwide after the Rev. Terry Jones' small church, Dove Outreach Center, threatened to destroy a copy of the holy book last year. The pastor backed down but the church in Gainesville, Florida, went through with the burning last month.

Four protesters also died in the violence in Mazar-i-Sharif, which is on a list of the first seven areas of the country where Afghan security forces are slated to take over from the U.S.-led coalition starting in July. Other demonstrations, which were peaceful, were held in Kabul and Herat in western Afghanistan, fueling resentment against the West at a critical moment in the Afghan war.

Protesters burned a U.S. flag at a sports stadium in Herat and chanted "Death to the U.S." and "They broke the heart of Islam." About 100 people gathered at a traffic circle near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. One protester carried a sign that said: "We want these bloody bastard Americans with all their forces to leave Afghanistan."

U.N. peacekeeping chief Alain LeRoy said the top U.N. envoy in Afghanistan, Staffan De Mistura, who is in Mazar-i-Sharif, believes "the U.N. was not the target."

"They wanted to find an international target and the U.N. was the one there in Mazar-i-Sharif," LeRoy told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Initially, Afghan police reported that eight foreigners had been killed in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Late on Friday, Dan McNorton, a spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan in Kabul, revised the death toll to seven — four foreign security guards and three other foreigners.

The guards were from Nepal, according to Gen. Daud Daud, commander of Afghan National Police in several northern provinces.

Sweden Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said Joakim Dungel, a 33-year-old Swede who worked at the U.N. office, was among those killed.

Norwegian Defense Ministry spokeswoman Maj. Heidi Langvik-Hansen said Lt. Col. Siri Skare, a 53-year-old female pilot working for the U.N., died in the attack.

LeRoy said the other victim was a citizen of Romania and that a number of U.N. personnel were injured and were being evacuated.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the head of the mission in Mazar-i-Sharif, a Russian citizen, was injured in the attack, but not seriously.

Police who went to investigate, said the U.N. compound was littered with broken glass and bullet casings.

Abdul Karim, a police officer in the city, said he saw the bullet-riddled bodies of three Nepalese guards lying in the yard and a fourth on the first floor.

He said another victim with a serious head wound died on a stairway to the basement of the compound. A man who was killed inside a room had severe wounds to his face and body, Karim said.

Munir Ahmad Farhad, a spokesman in Balkh province, said the protest began peacefully when several hundred demonstrators gathered outside the U.N. mission's compound, choosing an obvious symbol of the international community's involvement in Afghanistan to denounce the Quran's desecration. It turned violent when some protesters seized the guards' weapons and started shooting, then the crowds stormed the building and set fires that sent plumes of black smoke into the air, he said.

One protester, Ahmad Gul, a 32-year-old teacher in the city, gave a different account. He said the protesters disarmed three guards to prevent any violence from breaking out. Associated Press video showed protesters banging AK-47 rifles on the curb, breaking them into pieces. He said the protesters were killed and wounded by Afghan security forces.

"I disarmed three guards myself and we took out the bullets," Gul said, sternly shaking his finger as he shouted. "With my eyes, I saw them (Afghan security forces) kill two and wound 10." As he talked, he became increasingly indignant and he started shouting: "Death to America!" ''We are going to fight."

LeRoy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief, said the security guards, all Gurkhas, "tried their best" but were unable to prevent the large number of demonstrators, some armed, from storming the U.N. compound.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting late Friday and condemned the attack "in the strongest terms."

The U.N.'s most powerful body also condemned "all incitement to and acts of violence" and called on the Afghan government to bring those responsible to justice and take steps to protect U.N. personnel and premises.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is in Nairobi, said it was "an outrageous and cowardly attack against U.N. staff, which cannot be justified under any circumstances and I condemn in the strongest possible terms."

He instructed De Mistura to assess the situation and take any "necessary measures to ensure the safety of all U.N. staff."

LeRoy said U.N. officials would be reviewing security for U.N. personnel in Afghanistan.

President Barack Obama condemned the attack and underscored the importance of the U.N.'s work in Afghanistan.

"We stress the importance of calm and urge all parties to reject violence and resolve differences through dialogue," Obama said.

At the U.S. State Department, spokesman Mark Toner said the burning of a Quran in Florida was contrary to Americans' respect for Islam and religious tolerance. "This is an isolated act done by a small group of people and ... does not reflect the respect the people of the United States have toward Islam," he said.

The church's website stated that after a five-hour trial on March 20, the Quran "was found guilty and a copy was burned inside the building." A picture on the website shows a book in flames in a small portable fire pit. The church on Friday confirmed that the Quran had been burned.

In a statement, Jones did not comment on whether the church's act had led to the deaths. Instead he said it was time to "hold Islam accountable" and called on the United States and the U.N. to hold "these countries and people accountable for what they have done as well as for any excuses they may use to promote their terrorist activities."

Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai issued a statement calling the burning a "crime against a religion." He denounced the U.N. attack as a "disrespectful and abhorrent act" and called on the U.S. and the United Nations to bring to justice those who burned the holy book. Karzai issued a statement late Friday calling the killings an "inhumane act" that was "against the values of Islam and Afghans." He said he planned to call officials at U.N. headquarters to express his regret and condolences from the people of Afghanistan.

The U.N. has been the target of previous attacks.

In October 2010, a suicide car bomber and three armed militants wearing explosives vests and dressed as women attacked a U.N. compound in Herat in western Afghanistan. Afghan security forces killed the attackers and no U.N. employees were harmed. In October 2009, Taliban militants attacked a guesthouse used by United Nations workers in central Kabul. Eight people were killed, including five foreigners working for the U.N.

Separately, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that six U.S. Army soldiers were killed in separate incidents in fighting against insurgents during an operation in eastern Kunar province, which neighbors Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. Insurgents have slowly been filtering back into Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan as the spring fighting season gets under way.

The Lies of Infidelophobia?

A response to an widely circulated article, The Lies of Islamophobia, which attacks the idea of Islamic hatred of infidels as irrational Western invention, when infidels outside the West have been and continue to be the worst victim of Islamic hatred and barbarism...

---

There is an article being spread far and wide around the internet called "The Lies of Islamophobia" by someone named John Feffer. The article is full of falsehoods, half-truths and misapprehensions, basically accusing the West of bringing on Islamic terrorism ("blowback") and insinuating that those who are concerned with Koranically induced violence are not only "irrational" (as in "phobia") but also damaged from childhood. This article consists of anti-West propaganda that has already been refuted in a scholarly manner on countless occasions.

It's amazing that anyone with an ounce of integrity could possibly defend for one minute a violent, male-dominated cult that is responsible for the brutal murders of some 270 million people worldwide, including some 80 million Indians in their own lands. These slaughtered INDIANS were not WESTERNERS and have nothing whatsoever to do with Christian Crusades. They were murdered so that Muslim conquerors/jihadis could steal their land, women and other booty. These conquests were justified by the Koran, hadiths and Islamic history.

The words and deeds of Islamists themselves over the past 1,400 years immediately expose "The Lies of Islamophiles" such as Feffer and his ilk. And Islamic acts of violence - which are often directed against OTHER MUSLIMS - continue to demonstrate quite abundantly right in front of our eyes what Islam has been about since its inception.

The Lies of Islamophobia

The Muslims were bloodthirsty and treacherous. They conducted a sneak attack against the French army and slaughtered every single soldier, 20,000 in all. More than 1,000 years ago, in the mountain passes of Spain, the Muslim horde cut down the finest soldiers in Charlemagne’s command, including his brave nephew Roland. Then, according to the famous poem that immortalized the tragedy, Charlemagne exacted his revenge by routing the entire Muslim army....

Islamophobia is...an irrational fear of Islam. Yes, certain Muslim fundamentalists have been responsible for terrorist attacks, certain fantasists about a “global caliphate” continue to plot attacks on perceived enemies, and certain groups like Afghanistan’s Taliban and Somalia’s al-Shabaab practice medieval versions of the religion. But Islamophobes confuse these small parts with the whole and then see terrorist jihad under every Islamic pillow. They break out in a sweat at the mere picture of an imam.

Irrational fears are often rooted in our dimly remembered childhoods. Our irrational fear of Islam similarly seems to stem from events that happened in the early days of Christendom. Three myths inherited from the era of the Crusades constitute the core of Islamophobia today: Muslims are inherently violent, Muslims want to take over the world, and Muslims can’t be trusted.

The myth of Islam as a “religion of the sword” was a staple of Crusader literature and art. In fact, the atrocities committed by Muslim leaders and armies -- and there were some -- rarely rivaled the slaughters of the Crusaders, who retook Jerusalem in 1099 in a veritable bloodbath. “The heaps of the dead presented an immediate problem for the conquerors,” writes Christopher Tyerman in God’s War. “Many of the surviving Muslim population were forced to clear the streets and carry the bodies outside the walls to be burnt in great pyres, whereat they themselves were massacred.” Jerusalem’s Jews suffered a similar fate when the Crusaders burned many of them alive in their main synagogue. Four hundred years earlier, by contrast, Caliph ‘Umar put no one to the sword when he took over Jerusalem, signing a pact with the Christian patriarch Sophronius that pledged "no compulsion in religion".

This myth of the inherently violent Muslim endures. Islam “teaches violence,” televangelist Pat Robertson proclaimed in 2005. “The Koran teaches violence and most Muslims, including so-called moderate Muslims, openly believe in violence,” was the way Major General Jerry Curry (U.S. Army, ret.), who served in the Carter, Reagan, and Bush Sr. administrations, put it...

Further Reading

'Death to Islamophobes!'
Islamic Crusades Series - videos
Fourteen Centuries of War Against European Civilization
The Truth About Islam
Islam is not a race
Islam in Action
The wrong way to combat 'Islamophobia'

Islamic Barbarism: Disfiguring Women by Acid Attack

Women are sexual slaves of men in Islam. So when women refuse to follow that holy order by refusing sexual advances or marriage proposal etc. by Muslim men, the latter engage in acid attacks to disfigure the women in order to make them aware of their place in Muslim society...

---

One would be shocked to know that Dina el-Gowhary, a tender Egyptian girl of 15, has fallen victim to acid attack by Islamic fanatics. Her offence is: she was born to a father, who deserted Islam and embraced Christianity 35 years ago (Islamic Barbarism in Action: Acid Attack on Muslim Egyptian Girl for Converting to Christianity).

Wikipedia describe the phenomenon of acid attacks as thus:

“Acid throwing (acid attack or vitriolage) is a form of violent assault. Perpetrators of these attacks throw acid at their victims (usually at their faces), burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. The consequences of these attacks include blindness and permanent scarring of the face and body. These attacks are most common in Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Asian countries. Nearly 80% of victims of these acid attacks are females and almost 40% are under 18 years of age.”

It adds: “There is a high survival rate amongst victims of acid attacks. Consequently the victim is faced with physical challenges, which require long term surgical treatment, as well as psychological challenges, which require in-depth intervention from psychologists and counsellors at each stage of physical recovery. Depression and anxiety are common amongst all patients with large burn injuries; however for victims with acid injuries the physical scarring can lead to feelings of shame and embarrassment, resulting in the survivor living a life in hiding due to fear of prejudice and stigma from their peers and the community. Many survivors continue to have vivid memories of the incident which cause great levels of distress, especially when they know their attackers are free to attack again.”

In South Asia, acid attacks have been used as a form of revenge for refusal of sexual advances, proposals of marriage and demands for dowry. Scholars Taru Bahl and M. H. Syed say that disputes over land and properties are another leading cause. In Bangladesh, where such attacks are relatively common, they are mostly a form of domestic violence.

Fewer cases of acid attack also occurs amongst Hindus in India to enforce the caste system in India, where upper caste individuals often attack Dalits for supposedly violating the order, while in Cambodia, wives are reported to attacks their husbands' lovers with acid. According to the New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof, “Acid attacks are at an all time high in Pakistan and increasing every year. The attacks are typically the work of men against their wives who have dishonored them." In India, the number of acid attacks have been rising. There had been 68 reported acid attacks in the state of Karnataka since 1999.

According to a Rand Corporation (a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company) commentary, hundreds of women in Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan have became blind or maimed "when acid was thrown on their unveiled faces by male fanatics who considered them improperly dressed." Attacks or threats of attacks on women who failed to wear hijab or were otherwise "immodestly dressed" have been reported in other countries as well. In Afghanistan, in November 2008, extremists also targeted schoolgirls for attending school. It is to be noted that during the Taliban's rule, girls in the country were banned from attending school.

The chemical agents most commonly used to commit these attacks are hydrochloric acid and sulphuric acid. According to Mridula Bandyopadhyay and Mahmuda Rahman Khan, who are fighting to end this menace, it is a form of violence primarily targeted at women.

Dina el-Gowhary with father Maher el-Gowhary

As per the attack on Dina el-Gowhary is concerned, her father was a Muslim, but nearly 35 years ago, he left Islam and embraced Christianity. According to Egyptian law, apostasy or leaving Islam is a crime that calls for death sentence. Several Fatwas were issued calling for the spilling of his blood, which put his own life and of his family members in constant danger. In February, this year (2010), when Dina ventured out from their hiding place in Alexandria with her father to buy some bottled water, acid was thrown upon her, which set her jacket instantly on fire. “My father quickly took my jacket off before the fire could reach my arms. After this incident, I am terrorized to go out to the street, with or without my father,” said Dina.

Dina wrote a letter to the Egyptian President Mubarak seeking his intervention to save her life and the life of her father and allow them to leave Egypt. “She had previously written to President Obama, who got her message and responded to it. It was reported that the el-Gowharys met with the US Committee on International Religious Freedom on their last visit to Egypt in January, 2010, and they have asked for asylum in the US”, writes Mary Abdelmassih. But she is not confident whether she will get a similar treatment from President Mubarak. “Will he listen to us and lend us a helping hand?” asks Dina.

In her letter to Obama, Dina narrated her another encounter with Muslim fanatics. She wrote: “I was threatened many times before. Once while I was coming back from my school, a bearded young man stepped out of a car, lifted me through my clothes from the ground and warned me that if my father and myself do not go back to Islam, both of us will be killed.”

The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were, however, told that the order came from a higher authority without disclosing which this authority was. “It is only due to the grace and protection of God, that we are still alive”, said Dina.

The Story of Kulsooma of Kashmir

On August 6, 2000, Kulsooma, a ninth-grade student from Srinagar, Kashmir, was going for tuition with her cousin Fauzia. On the way, 4 boys appeared from nowhere and threw a bottle of acid on Kulsooma’s face (Valley of Fear, The Statesman, June 2, 2005).

“These were the times when Kashmir was gripped by fear as the Lashkar-e-Jabbar, a lesser known militant group which, with the support of Kashmir’s only woman militant organization Dukhtaran-e-Millat was enforcing the Muslim dress code – veils, covered head and no cosmetics. Kashmiri women and girls were asked to quit studies and stay at home”, says Ms Suri. “An attempt to talibanise education in Kashmir was started in 1991-92, when the Allah Tigers and the Dukhtaran-e-Millat had issued diktats on the dress code. The Lashkar-e-Jabbar cadres had also thrown acid on Gazala and Rubia, the teachers of government schools, for not wearing veil and for wearing make-up. The incident took place at Rangers’ Stop near Khanyar in Srinagar”, adds the Statesman story.

Just after the attack, Kulsooma’s cry rent the air. She cried to onlookers to come to her rescue and take her to a hospital. But, in fear of the fanatics, nobody came forward to help her. Fauzia, her cousin, threw water on her face to alleviate the pain and took her to the Srinagar Hospital.

Nearly ten years after the tragedy, Kulsooma is still terrorized. She rarely speaks. She talks only with her mother and that too in monosyllables.

Story of Haseena Hussain

“Haseena Hussain was an attractive, upwardly mobile woman in Bangalore, India, with everything going in her favour. But it all changed in 1999, when she turned down her former boss' marriage proposal and he sought revenge by pouring two liters of concentrated hydrochloric acid over her body”, wrote Scott Carney in his article Acid Attacks on Women in India Prompt Protests.

“Hussain now works with the 'Campaign and Struggle Against Acid Attacks on Women' (CSAAAW) to fight the surge of acid violence against women. Since 1999, the group has documented 61 such attacks. In the most recent case, a 22-year-old mother of four children was doused with acid, and forced to drink a deadly concoction of a corrosive chemical and alcohol by her abusive husband in the city of Mysore”, adds Carney.

CSAAAW has had some success in persuading the courts and the police into taking acid attacks more seriously. In a recent ruling, the sentence of Hussain's attacker was increased from five years to 14. But even that measure of justice rings hollow to Hussain, who had burns over most of her body and lost her nose and eyesight.

In that ruling, the judge also demanded that the government set up a fund of about US$250,000 to cover the costs of reconstructive surgery that many of these women need. Survivors of the attacks say that the fund is only enough to care for two women, far short of the needs of the more than 60 survivors.

Even with excellent medical care, the best that most of these women can hope is survival. If not treated immediately, they can lose their eyesight and get into depression. Many commit suicide.

Acid violence seems to be almost unique to South Asia, with most incidents occurring in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. Part of the reason is that acid is cheap and widely available. Many Indians use concentrated acid to sterilize their kitchens and bathrooms, as Americans would use bleach.

Perhaps the most dangerous thing about acid attacks is the fear that they create amongst target group, mainly beautiful young girl. With just a few rupees, anyone can buy a weapon that can ruin another person's life in just a few seconds. CSAAAW activists are currently demanding the government regulate the trading and use of acids.

ACID ATTACKS IN BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh, acid has emerged as the new weapon for disfiguring women. “Wives, daughters, girls are punished by having acid thrown on them, permanently disfiguring them. The government prohibits the sale of the corrosive liquids, but they are easily found on the market. The phenomenon is spreading. The victims now include children and adult males”, says a report, Acid is the new weapon for disfiguring women.

“Women in Bangladesh suffer marginalization. And the violence against them, at home and outside, continues to grow. Recently, a new weapon has been added: acid, which disfigures their faces and bodies”, the report adds.

Story of Parul and Nasima

Parul's husband, 30, disfigured her by throwing acid into her face in 2000, because her relatives failed to pay up the agreed dowry. The victim's mother had lodged a complaint with local police regarding the oppression and constant torture on her daughter by her husband and his kin a few months ago, but did not get justice. Even after the acid attack, her husband, the culprit, was not arrested.

Nasima has an 11-year-old mentally retarded daughter, who was raped. She accused the attackers two years ago, and since then she had been receiving continual threats. Then the acid attack took place. The attack left her torso and back devastated. She has now been forced not to press charges against her daughter's rapist, and withdraw her previous accusation.

Domestic and international awareness and pressure led the Bangladeshi Government to pass a strict law in 2002 against the practice of acid-throwing on of young women for economic reason, jealousy, or refusal of sexual advances. The new law saw a temporary reduction in such attack cases, but they are on the rise again.

There were 1,428 cases during 2002 to 2007; 116 cases from January to August 2007; and it rose to 125 in the same period this year (2008). Since 2002, there have been only 190 trials, in which 254 defendants have been sentenced: 11 to death, 89 to labor camps. Authorities are unable to say how many of those sentences have been carried out, or how many of the sentenced culprits are in prison.

Most recent victims have not only been young women, but also children, attacked out of vengeance against their parents, as well as men, attacked over land disputes and romantic rivalries.

“The only way to stop this horrendous crime against innocent girls is for ordinary people to realize that Islam is false, shot down the mosques and imprison the hate spewing mullahs, just as Ataturk did in Turkey and Reza Shah did in Iran, more than eighty years ago. But that would be the first step. The most important thing is to detoxify Muslims from Islam. Islam is the poison that is causing all these insanities”, says a social activist.

Islamic Barbarism in Action: Acid Attack on Muslim Egyptian Girl for Converting to Christianity

Dina el-Gowhary, a 15-year-old Egyptian Muslim-born girl, who converted to Christianity, was subjected to an acid attack. This is the latest in a string of failed attempts by Muslim fanatics to harm her and her father, 57-year-old Peter Athanasius (Maher el-Gowhary), who converted to Christianity 35 years ago.

Several Fatwa's were issued calling for the "spilling of his blood", which makes their lives in constant danger in the face of the reactionaries and advocates for the enforcement of Islamic apostasy laws, which call for the death for leaving Islam.

Three weeks ago, when she ventured out from their hiding place in Alexandria with her father to get some bottled water, acid was thrown upon her, which set her jacket on fire.

"My father quickly took my jacket off before the fire reached my arms. Ever since then I am terrorized to go out to the street, with or without my father," said Dina.

In an interview with Freecopts advocacy, Dina pleaded Egyptian President Mubarak to save her and her father, and allow them to leave Egypt.

She had previously written to President Obama, who got her message and responded to it. It was reported that the el-Gowharys met with the US Committee on International Religious Freedom on their last visit to Egypt in January 2010, and that they have asked for asylum in the United States.

Dina wonders whether she will get the same attention from President Mubarak as she did from President Obama.

"Will he listen and lend us a helping hand, if, as they claim, he truly does not differentiate between Muslim and Christian citizens?" She asked the Egyptian President, who newly became grandfather to a girl.

"Do you accept that your granddaughter would live under the same conditions like mine? I have no home, I am always afraid when I go to church or even go out in the street, I have no friends and no education," she added.

In her letter to President Mubarak, Dina expressed her deep distress at the mistreatment and continuous troubles she faces everywhere she goes, including being beaten and humiliated. She told of how persecution by teachers and fellow students after she embraced Christianity, forcing her to abandon school.

"I was threatened many times before. Once coming back from school, a bearded young man stepped out of a car, lifted me through my clothes from the ground and warned me that if my father and myself do not go back to Islam, both of us will be killed," she wrote to Obama.

Dina, now living with her Christian father for the last two years, has to move with him from one place to another in search of personal safety for both, in the face of the many threats they experienced since her father declared his conversion to Christianity and his desire to his change religious designation in official documents.

In June 2009 a Court refused his plea to change his religious designation on his ID to reflect his Christian religion and his Christian name, Peter Athanasius. The Court ruling said that the religious conversion of a Muslim is against Islamic Sharia law and poses a threat to the "Public Order" in Egypt. He has appealed the ruling.

In the Freecopts interview, Dina hoped that President Mubarak will help them leave Egypt in order for them to live a normal life and continue her education.

The el-Gowhary family was barred from leaving Egypt on September 17, 2009 without any legal reason. They were told, however, that the order came from a higher authority, without telling which authority exactly is barring him.
He explained, in an interview with Freecopts this week, the extremely difficult circumstances they are living under, being hunted the whole time and with many attempts on their lives.

"It is only due to the Grace and Protection of God, that we are still alive until today," he added.

"Why did they confiscate our passports? What have we done wrong?" lamented Dina, except embracing Christian, which they would not abandon, no matter what.