CAIRO - NO-one expects the Christian West to admit that the Qur'an is a Holy Divine Book similar to the Old and New Testament. However, what Muslims all over the world seek of the Western world, its rulers and citizens, is respect for the Muslims' beliefs and their Holy Book. Since the 9/11 event, the US has led the West in launching a war on Islam and Muslims. It has not only sent troops to Afghanistan, the hiding place of Al-Qaeda, which admitted responsibility for the wicked assaults on the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers in New York, but has held Islamic ideology accountable for the crimes committed by these terrorists. Since then, the world media have waged an immoral war on Islam and Muslims reflected in legislation that has been issued to limit their religious freedom. For example, laws have been passed against Muslims' rights to dress according to their belief or even build minarets on mosques and practise their religion in countries that used to be known for their respect for freedom of expression and belief. Innumerable crimes had been committed against the Muslim world, starting with the unjustified war on Iraq that continues to suffer division and unrest until now. They also include the Israeli barbaric offensives in south Lebanon and Gaza, punishing the citizens there for freely electing powers that Israel and the West have classified as terrorists. What is more important is that these events and the associated Islamophobia have long cornered Muslims in the defendant position, despite the innumerable crimes and violations that have been practised against them, their places of worship, their Prophet and their Holy Book by different parties in the West. Before a Danish newspaper published blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Mohamed, American guards at the notorious Guantanamo Bay detention camp flushed a copy of the Qur'an down a lavatory to upset prisoners, which incident triggered waves of anger in the Muslim world against the West and badly disrupted Muslim-Western relations. It was only when American President Barack Obama assumed rule that the tone of anti-Muslim campaigns diminished, not because of Obama's Muslim roots, but because of his apparent respect for Islam and Muslims, which he has continued to show since taking office. Thus, it was shocking for Muslims, especially in Afghanistan to see such shameful acts as exhibiting scorn for the Holy Qur'an by setting fire to some copies of it at an American base near Kabul. Obama's administration has tried to contain the consequence of this action by apologising although America's commander of the Nato forces, General John Allen. However, things seem to be getting out of control, as hundreds of Afghani protesters besieged the Bagram airbase, about 60 kilometres north of the capital Kabul, chanting "Death to America," and firing stones from slingshots and petrol bombs at the gate of the base. The US Embassy in Kabul said on Wednesday its staff was on lockdown and all travel was suspended amid violent protests across the capital over the event, as the news agency Reuters reported. Commenting on the act, the British Independent newspaper published an editorial on February 22 criticising the repeated American provocative acts targeting the Qur'an. "The tragedy is that we have been here before, not least last year when a Florida pastor soaked the Muslim Holy book in kerosene and set it alight. At least,10 UN workers were killed in the ensuing protests. Something similar happened after Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushed a Koran down a loo to upset prisoners," the newspaper wrote. The editoral continued: "Knowing how incendiary such incidents are, one might suppose that huge care would routinely be taken over such sensitivities, particularly in a fiercely conservative Islamic country such as Afghanistan. Apparently not. Will the US never learn?" In an attempt to contain the Afghan anger, Leon Panetta, the US secretary of defence, described the incident as "deeply unfortunate" in remarks on Tuesday. He echoed his top commander General John Allen's call for "swift and decisive action to investigate this matter". "These actions do not represent the views of the United States military. We honour and respect the religious practices of the Afghan people, without exception," Panetta said. The problem lies not in such acts being committed in a Muslim country living under American occupation, which is severely offended by such a disrespectful act, but the repetition of such acts underestimating the reactions of Muslim world. The huge human and financial casualties the world has suffered because of this enmity between the two fronts should have prompted each party to prevent the occurrence of any further acts, deepening the differences and aborting any attempts at rapprochement. Moreover, one doesn't need to believe in the Holy book of other people's religion to show respect for them. For example, the Jews who do not believe in the New Testament do not come today and set fire to any copy of the four Gospels. So why do some Christians disregard the Muslims' belief and disdain their Qur'an, the same book that urges Muslims to show respect for and recognition of Judaism and Christianity as divine religions?!
