Obama Condemns Quran Burning, Killing Of UN Workers In Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is extending his deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif by protesters enraged by the burning of a Quran in Florida.

Obama says desecration of the Quran "is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry."

But he says that does not justify attacking and killing innocent people, calling it "outrageous and an affront to human decency and dignity."

Eleven were killed Friday, including seven foreign U.N. employees.

And Afghans rioted for a second day Saturday, killing nine people in Kandahar and injuring more than 80.

Obama said in a statement that no religion tolerates "the slaughter and beheading of innocent people."

He said now was a time to draw upon the common humanity of all.

Read the full statement:

Today, the American people honor those who were lost in the attack on the United Nations in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan. Once again, we extend our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those who were killed, and to the people of the nations that they came from. The desecration of any holy text, including the Quran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity. No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act. Now is a time to draw upon the common humanity that we share, and that was so exemplified by the UN workers who lost their lives trying to help the people of Afghanistan.

Comments

[elljay1]

10:45 PM on 04/05/2011

Would any one be upset if bibles were burned?

[usaville]

08:58 PM on 04/11/2011

I believe in the inerrant word of God as written in the Scriptures and Gospels of the Holy Bible. Burning the bible or the quran only exposes the heart of the people doing the burning, and...the murdering. May God bless them. Upset, no, God is in control, not me.

[vinny]

01:40 PM on 04/04/2011

the master propagandist.

[fisherdude1969]

11:46 AM on 04/04/2011

Obama said in a statement that no religion tolerates "the slaughter and beheading of innocent people."

Really? Can't think of one religion that tolerates this? Not one? Our President must not have access to a television, newspaper, or internet if he can't think of one religion that tolerates these actions on a regular basis.

[Zork4]

02:19 PM on 04/04/2011

Deranged fundamentalists do not represent the beliefs of the majority of religious adherents. If they did, all Christians would be judged by the few nuts who shoot doctors.

[Craig DeBoard]

10:00 AM on 04/04/2011

If Fred Phelps and Terry Jones got in a fight, who would win?

[Zork4]

02:20 PM on 04/04/2011

If they both succumbed to their injuries, all of us.

[David Wertheimer]

02:19 AM on 04/04/2011

that is so true Mr. president http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=44808
it is an act of extreme bigotry and intolerance

how about this desecration ?

2 ignorant pastors did not kill 7 people, radical extremist did .the pators did not make them do it either the ones that made the radical extremist do it was radical extremist

it is ok for radical extremists to burn a church and it not cause christians to just up and start killing muslims
But no that is not bigotry at all

[parron]

01:59 PM on 04/03/2011

Read what Obama does with his Koran here...

www.laughatthenews.com

[joymij]

12:59 PM on 04/03/2011

We burn their koran, they kill our innocent people.

They fly planes into our buildings, and then ask to be accepted in our community. If the innocent are going to be punished for the wrongdoings of a few, then there would be no more muslims in america after 9/11

[Brandon Baier]

02:12 PM on 04/03/2011

Now Now those were not Afghan's or Pakistanis that Hi-Jacked those planes, well soem of them, but for the most part they were Saudi Arabian, just making a point, oh and dont forget Mohamed Atta got $100,000 dollars from the Saudi intelligence agency the day before. For fear of being called a con theorist I wont mention Rumsfields monetary issues the day before the attack...ooooops. To the Corporations like Haliburton, Securacom, Allied Health, and Raytheon this is a blessing. More guns to sell, more bombs to make, question though. Since we are fighting all these wars, and we have a history of employing many many people during a time of war, why is there currently an issue about unemployment and the middleclass is shrinking into poverty? For example WW II argueably brought us into the best economic situation America has ever seen. Where are the American made bullets tanks and missiles? Robots I am told has filled that void.
But if its not costing so much, because labor overhead is virtually gone, then why does the war still cost so much?

I guess Double Speak is just confusing lol.

[EasyRider46]

02:28 PM on 04/03/2011

Son, you sound very confused. You see, America is different than it was in the 1940's. Its a global economy now and unions have forced American corporations to manufacture off-shore. So we are employing many people. Unfortunately they come from foreign countries.

Is it making sense to you now?

[haljil]

06:56 PM on 04/03/2011

PS: Not a single hijacker on 9/11 was from Pakistan or Afghanistan! They were all from "allied" Arab countries with most of them being from Saudi Arabia - our extremely close and cozy oil friend!!!

[The Knocker]

06:35 PM on 04/03/2011

If you are looking for payback dont worry. The US are b0mbing Muslim right now like they always did in the past in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Just Like they did in Japan when after they haul off all the Japanese-American in concentration camp, they dropped two atomic b0mbs on their cities massacre thousand of women, children and babies.

Your Christian priest in the mean time keep raping daily young boys, sometime even babies, but thats OK because most of them are wh!te priest, so there is no need for any outcry.
Not to mention You also felt the same way a about J ews, so wh!te Christian wiped out six million of them. Are you happy now.

[ewldest]

12:52 PM on 04/03/2011

This would never have happened if the US were not engaged in a colonial occupation of Afghanistan
Mr. President, Commander in Chief - end the war now. You can - you CAN order all troops home.

[EasyRider46]

01:26 PM on 04/03/2011

And you believe that will solve the problem? I think not!

[kodimirpal]

12:53 AM on 04/04/2011

if we had addressed the root causes, it would have to a large extent reduced the problem

[BurtonDesque]

04:29 PM on 04/03/2011

Gee, and here I thought we were in Afghanistan because the Taliban aided and abetted al Queda before and after 9/11.

[ewldest]

01:07 PM on 04/04/2011

And you were wrong. You got a sales pitch and you bought it. Now you get what you got - a neverending war, thousands of lives lost and a bankrupt nation.

[Edward Lucie-Smith]

12:27 PM on 04/03/2011

Obama is helpless in the situation, despite being President of the world's most powerful nation. He's caught between a rock and a hard place, between fanatics at home and fanatics abroad. All he can do is wring his hands and bleat.

[Auldskul]

12:35 PM on 04/03/2011

His response sounded pretty sane to me, what "bleat" would you care to add?

[SuperDW]

12:48 PM on 04/03/2011

What would you have him do?

[joymij]

01:01 PM on 04/03/2011

pull all the tropps out, stop all foreign aid spending, and concentrate on our problems here, not everywhere else. We have created mroe jobs in Afghanistan and Iraq in the last 4 years than we have in America. Problem? I think so

[rob2trade]

12:05 PM on 04/03/2011

Where are the supposed moderate muslims denouncing this violence?Where are the "peace loving" Imams on the pulpit decrying this murders and stressing such acts of barbarism have no place in a civilized society?

Their silence is deafeaning.

Some quotes from the Koran culd help explain this silence:

http://prophetofdoom.net/Islamic_Quotes_Hell.Islam

[Doug Sandlin]

12:19 PM on 04/03/2011

"Where are the supposed moderate muslims denouncing this violence?"

One of the oldest tricks in the anti-Muslim book.

When the IRA or other Christian terrorist group murders people, where are the moderate Christians denouncing them?

When a Jewish extremist, say, kills the Israeli Prime Minister, where are the moderate Jews, speaking out against the religious extremism, in Judaism?

Aren't Christianity and Judaism rather obviously in need of some sort of serious reform?

What does the silence of these "moderate" Christians and Jews say about those religions?

Please.

What if moderate Muslims have been speaking out?

What if, when they do, they say everything anyone could hope for, and a whole lot more?

Example?

But of course .......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Gd3nKT9PTo

For more - a lot more - just enter Muslims Against Terrorism into Google or YouTube search.

You wrote:
"Some quotes from the Koran culd help explain this silence:

http://pro­phetofdoom­.net/Islam­ic_Quotes_­Hell.Islam"

Be careful ..... that's one of those silly anti-Muslim sites -- not good at all for the reality-minded.

Why?

Well, because they seem interested in pointing out only negative things about Islam and Muslims. How reality-based is that way of doing things?

Well, as a case in point, just about exactly 5% of the Quran's total verses are cruel or violent, and yet they seem to quote only those verses, thereby being 95% unrealistic.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/bible_quran.html

[SuperDW]

12:30 PM on 04/03/2011

Awesome and thorough response, but it's probably too late late for Rob2trade. Fanned.

[dhinds]

12:34 PM on 04/03/2011

Religious Fundamentalists (like American Exceptionalists) are convinced that they (and only they) have (their own particular version of the one and only true) God (or Allah, or ?) on their side.

(And a lot of them post here and elsewhere).

[SuperDW]

12:37 PM on 04/03/2011

Google is your friend, rob. There are lots and lots of examples of Muslims denouncing violence. Public statements by moderate Muslims rarely get the same press time as be-headings, though, so you do can't expect to find them on the front page.

[JM58]

04:09 PM on 04/03/2011

Regarding the public denouncing, or lack here of by muslims, you keep on bringing up Christian groups like IRA and other religions killing people and no public denouncing of their atrocities by people from that faith. The only "little" difference between these Christian and other religious inspired acts, and the muslim inspired acts like this one if you like, is that they are exclusively violence against fellow Christians or the same religion, and don't include an organized campaign publicly targeting another religions and it's followers. Correct me if I am wrong.

[EasyRider46]

10:20 AM on 04/03/2011

First off, I don't agree with what the pastor did but he does have the right to do it.

However, I also believe the pastor did what he did knowing the likely outcome and exposing those who committed the crimes for who they are. Its like fighting a war. He knew there will be casualties but there is a much larger goal.

[wardropper]

10:26 AM on 04/03/2011

Well I hope you will extend to him the world's gratitude for his illuminating little experiment...

[EasyRider46]

10:36 AM on 04/03/2011

Its not about that. Its his way of expressing himself and exposing that part of the world for who they are. And they did not disappoint. They did exactly what he thought they would do. Like it or not.

[Shawna Lit]

10:42 AM on 04/03/2011

How about we sent him to Afghanistan where he can practice all the Quran burning he wants.

[Huff reader2011]

11:24 AM on 04/03/2011

Agreed.

[Jacqueline3]

11:33 AM on 04/03/2011

Agreed!

[allanpiper]

10:16 AM on 04/03/2011

If I insulted someone's mother in a bar and he punched me in the face, legally speaking I'd be an innocent man expressing my free speech and he's be guilty of assault. However, no reasonable person would say I didn't pick the fight. What a tragedy that instead of just getting his own nose bashed in, this preacher contributed to the death of so many people who had nothing to do with his bigotry.

[Shawna Lit]

10:44 AM on 04/03/2011

Indeed. Safe to burn the book when he's thousands of miles away. Others instead suffer for his stupidity. What was he thinking? Was he thinking this would bring people closer to God? Well, that one backfired.

[Huff reader2011]

11:25 AM on 04/03/2011

Agreed...and he was warned.

[EasyRider46]

01:49 PM on 04/03/2011

You must live on another planet. There are millions of Muslims in this country.

[EasyRider46]

11:04 AM on 04/03/2011

Its why we have jury trials and they don't. Its why women in this country are treated with respect versus women in that part of the world looked at as second class s.ex objects.

[SuperDW]

11:21 AM on 04/03/2011

The pastor did it for the women? He didn't help the mothers of the 8 non-muslims who were killed.

[Doug Sandlin]

12:08 PM on 04/03/2011

Who is "they", exactly?