Afghans Continue Qur'an Burning Protests, 9 Killed and 81 Wounded In Kandahar Protests

The Afghan people have decided to continue their outrage at the burning of the Qur'an in Florida by killing more and more of their own people - today in Kandahar, over 80 people were wounded and 9 were killed when violence erupted during a protest of the Qur'an burning.

Maybe I'm missing something but if you are standing in a crowd protesting the defiling of your holy book, at what point do you decide to kill the guy next to you?

Oh wait, I forgot, this is Islam - if you don't kill someone or something in a certain amount of time you start to melt so ....

It is reassuring that these Afghan people are joining their Taliban brothers at these protests, standing side by side, shoulder to shoulder with the men that blew up their brother and sister and babies over the last six months. But hey, it's all about priorities, isn't it?

Here's the story from Breitbart.

Anger over Qur'an burning erupts into bloody riots in Kandahar, killing 9



Tara Brautigam, The Canadian Press KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Outrage over the burning of the Muslim holy book in Florida erupted into a second day of bloody riots in Afghanistan, this time in the spiritual homeland of the Taliban, leaving nine dead and dozens more injured Saturday.

About 100 people gathered Saturday morning in Kandahar city to vent their anger over the burning of the Qur'an by a pastor at a small Christian fundamentalist church in Florida last month.

The demonstration later grew and boiled over into violence when men wielding sticks marched through the streets, setting cars ablaze and burning down shops as the crackle of gunfire rang out in the city, the second largest in the country.

"We are standing with the Taliban shoulder-to-shoulder because the infidels are against Islam," said Havi Atta Muhammad, an Afghan who took part in the protest.

"They're not here for help or any sort of development."

Haji Lali said Afghans were united in their opposition to those who desecrate the Qur'an.

"We are all Afghans and stand against infidels," Lali said.

"I have seen the bravery of Afghans today."

Tooryalai Wesa, the Afghan-Canadian governor of Kandahar, lashed out at those who took part in the deadly riots.

"Some wicked and destructive people placed themselves amongst the protesters," Wesa's office said in a statement.

Wesa also condemned the burning of the Qur'an as an "abhorrent move" by "a stupid pastor."

His office said at least 81 people were wounded in the Kandahar melee and that Afghan National Security Forces arrested 17 people.

A federal official at Camp Nathan Smith, the provincial reconstruction centre in Kandahar city, said all Canadians have been accounted for.

Task Force Kandahar said it restricted transit through the city by its military and civilian personnel but its routine operations were not affected.

The Qur'an burning and the riots it incited are the latest blow to NATO's counterinsurgency efforts in Afghanistan, where relations have become strained in recent weeks.

A spate of civilian deaths in recent weeks have earned Karzai's scorn. And last month, the publication of photos depicting U.S. soldiers posing next to the bodies of dead Afghans in Kandahar's Maiwand district further stoked tensions.

The photos ran last month in Rolling Stone magazine and Der Spiegel, a German news magazine.

The burning of the Qur'an occurred March 20, but many Afghans only heard of it when President Hamid Karzai condemned the act this week.

It took place at the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., the same church where Rev. Terry Jones had threatened to destroy a copy of the Qur'an last year but backed down.

But the church proceeded to burn the book last month, and Jones defended the act, saying it was within his rights under the U.S. Constitution to do so.

The burning triggered mass protests Friday in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, where four Afghans and seven foreigners were killed after protesters stormed a United Nations compound.

Up until then, Mazar-e-Sharif was considered a relatively safe city — so much so that Karzai announced last month that it would be among the first areas in the country where Afghan forces would take over the responsibility of security in July.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay also visited that city two weeks ago while on a reconnaissance mission of sorts for Operation Attention, Canada's upcoming training mission, the details of which have yet to be announced.

MacKay said Mazar-e-Sharif was one of several places where Canadians could be based as part of that mission, which is set to begin once combat operations wind down in July.

Up to 950 troops and support staff will remain in Afghanistan on the training mission until 2014.