Obama Burned in Effigy at Quran Protest

(Kabul, Afghanistan) An apparently groundless "false report" of the Quran being insulted by U.S. troops was circulated by the Taliban, prompting a mass protest.

Furious Afghans torched an effigy of US President Barack Obama and hurled stones at police on Sunday during a mass protest over allegations that western troops set fire to a copy of the holy Quran.

A crowd of around 1,000 demonstrators, mainly university students, marched through the streets of Kabul before massing in front of the national parliament building and hurling stones at riot police as well as an armoured vehicle which blocked them from going down one street.

Police responded by firing into the air, dispersing the crowd for a brief period before they massed again.

The demonstrators, almost all men, chanted: ‘Death to America, death to Jews and Christians!’ as they burned an effigy of Obama and a United States flag.

Some wore black ribbons on their foreheads, calling for jihad.

‘We have gathered here to express our disgust towards the American troops and their act of burning and insulting our holy book of Quran,’ Ihsanullah Hakimi, one of the demonstrators, told AFP.

Interestingly, although the masses get all charged up over a false report of Quran burning by U.S. forces, there was no outrage at an incident of actual Quran burning by the Taliban documented last April. Consequently, I suggest that burning of the Quran is an offense where severity is determined by who did the burning.

It's also worth noting that chants of "Death to America" along with torched effigies were experienced during the Bush and previous administrations seemingly despite what policies were adopted. I suggest there should be no expectations that the situation will be any different under the Obama administration.