Thursday, February 23, 2012

It's called Google, people.

Ten years. Ten years we've been at war with extremists in predominantly Muslim countries.

After all those years, don't you think that all military and DOD civilians should be able to tell if a book is a copy of the Qur'an? You only need to read two words: "Al-Qur'an al-Kareem". That's it. If you are tasked with disposing of copies of the Qur'an because said books had extremist sentiments scribbled in them by detainees, and you know that the Muslim populace of the country gets PISSED if you disrespect their holy book, don't you think you should...oh, I don't know... find out proper disposal procedures? Even if there weren't a few hundred locals on post you could ask, there's always our good friend Google. But you couldn't be bothered to find out. Why surprised, then, when some of the local nationals who work on the base find the half-burnt Qur'ans and word spreads like wildfire?

BAF, you are fail.

On another note, let me tell you about the guy who came through my line at work last night. He walked up to my register with his stuff and asked "What's that thing on your head?" When I told him it's called a hijab and that I am a Muslim, he said -- get this -- "Oh, is that like Buddha, then? You rub his belly for luck and pray to him?" >>>>>>.<<<<<<< REALLY?!?!?!?! My answer: "No."

He was all "I don't mean to be rude, I'm just curious", but his tone was rude and he had a smirk on his face the whole time. Either he was intentionally being a moron or he REALLY needs a copy of "Islam for Dummies: Redneck Edition". *facepalm*

EDIT: I just read that two soldiers (reports on whether they were NATO or American vary) have been killed, bringing the combined Afghan and coalition total to 14 since this riot began 3 days ago. May Allah grant them peace in the next life and forgiveness for their killer. InshaAllah there will be peace in Afghanistan one day.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, on the second incident: *laughing* I get that he was being a jerk, obviously, but I had this image of someone, genuinely confused, trying to rub hijabis' heads for luck. It's very amusing, fyi.

    Back to the first incident, the Epic Fail: Governmental Head Desk anyone? You'd think that people, especially people actually living and working in a country where the tensions are high, would think a little before they do things. But noooo....

    I remember reading once that the correct way to dispose of a damaged Qur'an, just like a damaged Bible (and probably a Torah though I'm not sure about that), *is* burning. But respectfully and clearly *not* on a heap of trash!

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  2. I'm curious if it is part of Muslim law to kill the people who desecrate the Quran.

    Do you think the Qurans were written in Arabic so they didn't see "Al-Quran" written in our script? I'm just trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. I don't understand why people have to kill for this. They certainly don't bear witness that Islam is a peaceful, tolerant religion when they riot and murder that way. Sorry, just being honest.

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    1. Suzanne:

      Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're well. : )

      What do you mean when you say "Muslim law"? We need to be careful here. The true Islamic law comes from the Qur'an and only the Qur'an, but much of the hadith has been taken as law alongside or even in place of the Qur'an, enacting violent and severe punishments never proscribed by the Qur'an for different offenses.

      Is it Qur'anic? No. Not at all. Is it part of the hadith? I don't know. I've never looked it up, but I'll do that now that you've brought it up.

      Another issue is the "Arabic is the holy language, translations are inferior" mindset prevalent in traditional Islam. Top that attitude with a country that is not Arabic-speaking and is at least 70% illiterate (men) and 90% (women), and you have a dominance of cultural traditions and little, if any, actual Qur'anic practice. These people don't know that their behavior is unIslamic because they don't know what Islam actually teaches!

      Before we got in country, many of us were taught basic phrases in Pashto and Dari. I don't think that teaching soldiers to read two words, even if it's in Arabic, is too much to ask. Frankly, I'm rather surprised that people at the prison on BAF didn't know those books were Qur'ans.

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