Afghans Protest Quran Burning

Livid over a Florida pastor's plans to burn Qurans on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, hundreds of angry young Afghans flooded the streets of Kabul Thursday to protest. Chanting "Quran is our law," and "Muhammad is our leader," the protesters threw rocks at posters encouraging Afghan citizens to vote in its parliamentary elections and set an effigy on fire. Afghan police have had trouble containing the chaos. Islamic clerics also reported a protest in an area just outside the Bagram air base. While several Afghan clerics are appreciative that so many American politicians—including President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Palin—have denounced plans to burn Qurans, protests are expected to continue across Afghanistan as the Saturday event in Florida draws near. Cleric Abdul Hadi Rostaqi told the Associated Press that if the church goes through with the burning, Afghans will stage a large anti-American protest in Mazar-e Sharif. Said Enayatullah Balegh, a Muslim cleric who teaches Islamic law at Kabul University: "People expressed their anger, their frustrations, and they said they're going to be defending the holy Quran," he said. "And they promised to take action." Jones is now saying that he is calling off the plans, amid unconfirmed reports that he spoke to the imam of the "ground zero mosque" and reached agreement that the Islamic center would be moved.