Thousands of Afghans protest burning of Koran by foreign troops

Reports of foreign troops burning copies of the Koran has led to Afghan protests outside the main US military base in Bagram.

Approximately 2,000 angry people gathered in front of the complex as helicopters fired flares to try to break up the demonstration. With the crowd chanting anti-foreigner slogans, this incident could be bad for public relations.

U.S. General John Allen says that the situation is being investigated and that steps are being taken to ensure that this will not happen again.  CBS News reports that detainees were allegedly using Korans to pass extremist messages to one another by writing notes in them.

Desecration of the Koran has prompted violence in Afghanistan before, when Florida preacher Terry Jones burned a copy of the Koran.

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D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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