**This piece was written by my friend, Jase Short, of Tennessee.**
As uprisings, revolutions and protests continue to radiate from the Tunisian and Egyptian epicenters, we ought to pause to take a look at the peculiar situation of Afghanistan. “Peculiar” in what sense, however? Peculiar in the character of the protests? Peculiar due to the military occupation and warlord-ization of the country under the occupation authority? Or peculiar due to its religious justifications?
Of Qu'rans and Military Occupations of Muslim Countries
Toward the end of last month, Terry Jones—the pastor who had threatened a “Qu'ran Bonfire” during the height of last summer's wave of Islamophobia in the States—burned a Qu'ran in a somewhat anti-climatic ceremony that gained only YouTube notoriety. The conspicuous absence of the mainstream media for the whole event contrasted with the hyper-obsessive coverage of every action of Pastor Jones just mere months ago, but Jones did get the attention of far right Islamists in different parts of the world. For whatever reason, Jones' burning of the Qu'ran did not seem to incite major protests or responses around the Arab and Muslim worlds—perhaps indicative that the uprisings are changing the fundamental coordinates of the political situation, at least temporarily stunting the appeal of religious slogans and programs in much of the Middle East and North Africa.
Then we get the images the mainstream media has fed us from Afghanistan over the past week: images of angry Afghans taking to the street, especially in the previously stable city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the most important major city lacking any serious Taliban influence (there is a reason it was the first town conquered by the warlord's bonanza called “the Northern Alliance” during the 2001 US invasion, it is split into many ethnic minorities, the Taliban are almost exclusively Pashtun). Not all of the information is in or can be verified (can something like that ever be done with a country under military occupation?), but we know that UN security guards fired on the crowd, the crowd moved to disarm the guards and some element of the crowd (probably organized pre-protest) murdered the guards and some staff at the UN compound.
Protests then spread to Kandahar and across Afghanistan, even to its east—a place that has not seen any mass risings against the occupation to date. There is now a nationwide protest movement against the NATO occupation, the first of its kind in the decade of occupation that has plagued the country. There is no doubt that the Taliban has taken advantage of the situation and is largely responsible for directing many of these protests—there was fear of riots just a week ago, the fact that mostly peaceful demonstrations have occurred instead is a testament to the fact that Afghans have a fighting chance for the first time to challenge this occupation through the politics of civil disobedience rather than armed guerilla struggle. Forces on the left and liberal end of the spectrum of NATO countries ought to support this effort, but have remained largely silent due to the success of the ideological campaign waged against the Afghan people by the Karzai government, the NATO and the mainstream media.
The crux of the whole affair is the last minute attachment of statements of outrage against Terry Jones' Qu'ran burning to lists of demands in the protests.
