There were demonstrations in just about every Afghan city. Karzai's police killed 15 demonstrators and wounded 150 but to avail.The Americans are pulling their hair out, trying to convince the Afghans that they love Islam and revere the Qur'an. Condileeza Rice is making a fool of herself assuring Muslims that she respects the "koran." [CNN suddenly discovered the correct spelling: "Qur'an" and not "Koran.]
The process of damage control was comic. The White House pressured Newsweek magazine.
Newsweek apologized for publishing the story of the desecration.
The White House said the apology was not enough and pressured Newsweek some more.
Newsweek then declared that it was RETRACTING the desecration story. Believe us, it never happened!
The TV scenes which followed were surrealistic. Newsweek's editorial officials came on TV to apologize and retract. They were in a state of shock. Newsweek explained that the report on the Qur'an was cleared by a TOP official in the Bush administration before it was published. It was also cleared by the Pentagon.
Thus now Newsweek was being forced to retract a report which had come from top American officials. Newsweek is from the structure of the Democratic party [linked to MSNBC TV, owned by the Washington Post]. This afforded the Republicans a chance to claim that Newsweek was unpatriotic and had damaged America's image "deliberately."
The incident brought out one of the open secrets about the "freedom of the press." The press is free to publish things which are not objectionable to the people in power. Once it does step on the government's toes, it can be made to retract in the medieval style in which the Inquisition at one time used to make dissenters retract.
Careful reading of the whole mess indicates the bottom line: America throught it had "liberated" Afghanistan. Once the Afghans found out what was really going on in Guantanamo Bay, they rose up without hesitation. The multi-million dollar U.S. investment went down the drain.
An important lesson for Muslims: Owing to lack of communication, our nations sometimes don't know what is going on. The Arab world has Al-Jazeerah, but in Afghanistan, it takes time for information to sink in.
The Muslim world is very much alive. It will make the only right choice for Muslims: ISLAM, as authenticated by the Qur'an and the Hadith. The Afghans can be quite cynical with those who think they can conquer Muslims. The Afghans take their money and then kick them. No wonder Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar could not be caught.
I doubt if ANY average Afghan has read Newsweek or knows [or cares] who is Condileeza Rice!
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{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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