Thursday, October 20, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan — Islamic clerics expressed outrage Thursday at television footage that purportedly shows U.S. soldiers burning the bodies of two dead Taliban (search) fighters to taunt other militants and warned of a possible violent anti-American backlash.
President Hamid Karzai (search) condemned the alleged desecration and ordered an inquiry. The operational commander of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, which launched its own criminal probe, said the alleged act, if true, was "repugnant."
Worried about the potential for anti-American feelings over the incident, the State Department said it instructed U.S. embassies around the globe to tell local governments that the reported abuse did not reflect American values.
Cremating bodies is banned under Islam, and one Muslim leader in Afghanistan compared the video to photographs of U.S. troops abusing prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib (search) prison.
"Abu Ghraib ruined the reputation of the Americans in Iraq and to me this is even worse," said Faiz Mohammed, a top cleric in northern Kunduz province. "This is against Islam. Afghans will be shocked by this news. It is so humiliating. There will be very, very dangerous consequences from this."
Fox News
Clerics Warn of Anti-American Feelings Over Alleged Body Burnings
Discussion in '2005 Archive' started by poncho, Oct 21, 2005.
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Fanning the fire with expressions of false outrage while they plan how to best use this to their advantage.
Still, if it happened at all, an idiotic blunder by someone somewhere. -
I hope it did ot happen. It only take one rotten apple to spoil the whole barrel. But don't you get tired of hearing all the eloquent criticism from the musilem world when one or ours does something stupped, but we have all come to accept the bodie burnnings and beheadings purputrated by the muslims.
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Although I dont condone the mind games MI plays, all I can think when I saw this headline was...'consider it a little outrage on behalf of the families that had to endure the beheadings of their loved ones'.