One of the staff at my Kandahar office has an 11-year-old daughter who loves going to school. School is where her friends are, where she writes her stories and where she tries to understand why the teacher says her handwriting needs to improve (she vehemently disagrees). School is also in the centre of town, where the recent week of violent protest made it impossible for her to go there.
The actions of a marginal Florida pastor apparently enraged so many so much, that UN staff had to be killed and many more Afghan civilians ended up dead or wounded. One of the protesters said that he ‘had to defend Islam and their dignity’.
I may be wrong, but what I saw did not look like defending anything, nor did it look dignified. It looked like random violence, attacking people, setting cars on fire and destroying livelihoods. In the process more Qurans were burnt in the torched shops than any unhinged pastor ever did. The protesters apparently did retain the moral high-ground though, as it would be impossible for them to maim, molest or murder for anything than the highest Good, or so we were told by President Karzai.
With most other Muslims occupied with protests in the Middle East that were actually dignified and constructive, Karzai must have been relieved that clerics chose to focus on the Quran-burning and consequently the people of Afghanistan were still not gathering in front of his presidential palace or the provincial Council in Kandahar to address the eye-watering corruption and endless impunity that is orchestrated from there on a daily basis. So he ‘understood’ that they had to set the streets ablaze and tied his own hands by sitting on them.
An 11-year-old girl that wants to go to school has enough to be frightened of on the streets of Kandahar without self-serving hotheads, be they president or protester, making it worse. If you are not planning anything positive with your protest, then leave your banner and lighter at home and instead demonstrate dignity by allowing a little girl to go to school. Now that will prove a certain pastor wrong.
