WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama on Saturday condemned a US pastor’s burning of the Koran, after aggressive protests at what he called an act of “extreme intolerance and bigotry” left 17 dead in Afghanistan.
Obama also repeated his condemnation of the “outrageous” attacks by strikers as “an affront to human decency and dignity.”
“No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act,” he added.
Ten people died amid fresh protests that began in the middle of the main southern city of Kandahar and increase as police clashed with crowds on Saturday, a day after seven UN staff was killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the worst attack on the world body in the country since the 2001 attack.
“The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” Obama said in a report honoring those killed in the attacks.
Kandahar is the religious heartland of the Taliban, who have fought a revolution against President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies since they were ousted by the US-led invasion.
“Death to America” and “Death to Karzai” repeated the demonstrators. “They have insulted our Quran,” shouted one.
Obama also repeated his condemnation of the “outrageous” attacks by strikers as “an affront to human decency and dignity.”“No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act,” he added.
Ten people died amid fresh protests that began in the middle of the main southern city of Kandahar and increase as police clashed with crowds on Saturday, a day after seven UN staff was killed in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, the worst attack on the world body in the country since the 2001 attack.
“The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry,” Obama said in a report honoring those killed in the attacks.
Kandahar is the religious heartland of the Taliban, who have fought a revolution against President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul and its Western allies since they were ousted by the US-led invasion.
“Death to America” and “Death to Karzai” repeated the demonstrators. “They have insulted our Quran,” shouted one.
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