Sada-e Azadi

While conducting their duties with ISAF troops in late January, Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers entered a house in Garmsir in Helmand and discovered burnt Qur’ans.

In the weeks before this finding, insurgents had spread lies. “International soldiers burned Qur’ans,” the rumours went. “They dishonoured Islam.”

The insurgents’ lies prompted a demonstration in Garmsir district centre where an insurgent sniper shot an Afghan intelligence officer. The other officers thought the shot came from the crowd and fired on demonstrators in self-defence, killing five people.

Because of this act, the insurgents spread new lies claiming that it was Coalition forces who had opened fire.

“The Taliban were provoking the people,” said Kamal Khan, Garmsir’s deputy provincial police chief.

“They were telling the people that the Americans and their Afghan partners are killing innocent people, bombing their homes and destroying their mosques, and also blaspheming their religion and culture,” Mr Khan told the Times newspaper a day after the demonstration.

When Afghan soldiers found piles of burnt Qur’ans a couple of weeks later, it was clear that it was not the international soldiers but the insurgents who where burning the Qur’ans and starting the rumours.

After this finding, Mullah Mukhtar, the Helmand director of Hajj, called a shura of mullahs. They denounced the actions of the insurgents and issued a fatwa against them. The fatwa, which has been broadcast on local radio stations, states that:

Insurgents who burned the Holy Qur’an are criminals who should be arrested as soon as possible. The government should work hard to identify the insurgents, who are ultimately responsible for the civilian deaths during the January riots in Garmsir. ISAF forces did not disrespect the Qur’an. Rather, insurgents desecrated the Qur’an as a tactic to turn civilians against ISAF.

ISAF forces are trained on the sanctity of the holy book and go to significant steps to protect it. ISAF is an international force that includes Muslim soldiers. ISAF condemns religious desecration under any circumstances.

Insurgents tell lies. They tell lies about international soldiers dishonouring the Holy Qur’an, demolishing mosques and being disrespectful to Afghan women. They tell lies when trying to stop progress in Afghanistan.

This deplorable tactic demonstrates the insurgents’ lack of respect for religion and the people of Afghanistan. It shows how weak and desperate the insurgents are after Afghan and international troops pushed them out of key areas in Helmand and the south. Now, forces together with the government are working to improve people’s lives by building roads and irrigation canals, improving health care and education, creating jobs and building the economy.

Real progress is being made and more will be as additional international troops train Afghan forces and protect the people from the insurgents’ violence. The insurgents have no way to fight back except through lies and propaganda.

The insurgents commit acts against Islam every day. Why do people not demonstrate when the insurgents commit crimes against Islam or against innocent Afghans? Why do people not demonstrate when the insurgents destroy mosques, burn schools, rob people and kill children?

Because the anti-Coalition, anti-ISAF demonstrations are not spontaneous eruptions of anger of the common people. These demonstrations are carefully organised riots by anti-government provocateurs.

“Getting people onto the streets in Afghanistan is very difficult, it takes quite some organising. Someone wants to send a message to the Afghan government and to Coalition forces in Afghanistan,” Haroun Mir, head of Afghanistan’s Centre for Research and Policy Studies, told AFP after the insurgents burned the Holy Qur’an in Wardak province and incited thousands of young people to demonstrate around the country in October 2009.

The insurgents telling these lies and organising these displays want to create more conflict and chaos. They want Afghanistan to stay a poor and underdeveloped country.

Afghans who do not support the insurgents in their attempts to prevent development should remain calm on hearing insurgents’ rumours. They should wait for official announcements from government officials who will conduct an investigation.