Shocking news spread over the world on 1 April 2011: in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, an enraged crowd broke into a UN Mission building and organized a real pogrom there. It resulted in at least 11 deaths among the UN foreign staff, 12 were seriously wounded. Two of them were beheaded. The killed include citizens of Norway, Romania and Sweden, men and women alike. Four of the killed were Gurkha security officers (probably, ex-servicemen of UK Armed Forces). The wounded include one Russian national.
What was this attack caused by?
As experts of the , Mazar-i-Sharif events have their cause and reason like any mass disorder. The reason is profound and represents an entire set of annoying factors that have been accumulating in the consciousness of locals:
1. The main thing is hate of foreigners. They killed everyone regardless of age, sex, color and religion.
2. Disregard of the mission that the foreigner performs in Afghanistan. UN staff are not the military and their activities are primarily humanitarian (medicine, education, charity etc).
3. Utter disregard, amounting to disdain, of the Afghan police and other special services intended to provide security. The crowd swept away thin police cordons like a tsunami. The attackers chanted: ‘Death to Hamid Karzai’ (President of Afghanistan).
Of course, there was a pretext for the attack. It was so vivid that the entire world is speaking of it now: on 20 March 2011 American pastor Wayne Sapp burnt the Koran, the holy book of all Muslims, in his Church in Florida. This is why the raving crowd shouted: ‘Death to the US! Death to Israel!’ even though there have been neither Americans nor Israelis in Mazar-i-Sharif. Only the German and Norwegian element is quartered there.
Who is this American pastor that caused a storm?
This scandal that led to bloodshed was triggered by Wayne Sapp – one of the preachers of the Dove World Outreach Center:
1. This is a small church organization that operates mainly in Florida. It is run by Reverend Terry Jones, the ideological mentor of the Koran’s burner.
3. Last year he promised himself to burn the holy book of all Muslims to celebrate the 9/11 anniversary.
4. This claim drew a wide response in the world. Many public and political figures tried to talk Terry Jones out of making such a fatal error. Even Barack Obama urged the fanatic to drop this idea. Indeed, he didn’t do it, but only after a request from Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of Afghanistan-based US Troops.
5. They managed to prevent the scandal at that stage, but last month the sacrilege was committed resulting in human victims. By the way, Terry Jones was personally present when the Koran was burnt.
6. Interestingly, the American court found nothing illegal in the pastor’s intent to burn the holy book. In its opinion, the burning of the Koran is comparable to the burning of the Stars and Stripes. This is what regularly is done in many countries of the world.
What are the consequences of the sacrilege over the sacred object?
First, massive protests occurred in Kabul. 10,000 people turned out a few times:
• Then the Bloody Friday in Mazar-i-Sharif.
• unrest in Kandahar on 2 April resulting in about 10 deaths among local Afghanis.
• UN Secretary-General, US President and Great Britain’s Prime Minister condemned acts of violence in Afghanistan urging people to maintain peace. Afghanistan’s government was urged by global leaders to investigate into the incident and punish the guilty parties.
• the UN enacted the White City order in Afghanistan. This means its staff cannot leave the Mission’s buildings. Obviously, soon all UN Missions will leave the country temporarily as required by this organization’s security policies.
Will the unrest overwhelm the entire Muslim world or be limited to Afghanistan?
There are quite a few strange things about what has happened:
1. Why is it now that the American pastor decided to burn the Koran? In case of September 11 there would be some explanation. But why now?
2. Why were mass protests organized only 10(!) days after this event?
3. Why did the unrest cover only Afghanistan – a country whose population has almost no access to the media?
4. Why is it in Mazar-i-Sharif that the massacre took place – a city in northern Afghanistan believed to be peaceful and even quiet until recently? Talibs weren’t there even in the 1990s.
5. Why did the murder look demonstratively barbarian?
6. Why did no mass unrest follow after a few copies of the Koran were finally burnt in the US (in Tennessee, Kansas, New York and even in the vicinity of the White House in Washington) in September 2010?
You can see there are more questions than answers. It’s absolutely clear that events were triggered by a monstrous provocation. But it’s hard to say who is behind it – Islamic extremists or the west:
• On the one hand, Taliban, al Qaeda and similar organizations can derive as much benefit as possible from the resulting situation. They will stir up Muslims, scare adherents of different faith, show the coalition’s failure to control the situation in Afghanistan. Islamists will be able to incite Days of Wrath in other Muslim countries as well, aiming them against local dictators brought to power by the US.
• On the other hand, Islamic extremist failed to persuade American pastors to do what they did. For some reason, unrest started only in Afghanistan, which is under the control of Americans. Now it is Afghanistan and not just any Muslim country that the UN Mission will now have to leave as a place where military operations are under way and its presence is simply needed. It is in the US interests to use the ensuing scandal to solve its certain problems in Afghanistan.
It’s hard to say if the unrest caused by the burning of the Koran will spread to other Muslim countries. It is this sign that will essentially help establish who ‘ordered’ the provocation.
A survey at the traders’ forum: In your opinion, what forces are behind the recent bloodshed in Afghanistan?
• Islamic extremists.
• Western secret agencies.
• A third party.
