Quran

As violent protests continued in Afghanistan over the burning of copies of the Muslim holy book by NATO forces, the Pentagon confirmed Monday that a Maryland National Guard major was one of two U.S. military officers shot to death inside a ministry building in the heart of the Afghan capital over the weekend. Maj. Robert J. Marchanti II, 48, a longtime physical-education teacher in the Baltimore County public schools, had been working since September as a mentor to the Afghan National Police, part of the NATO partnering mission at the center of U.S. strategy in the country.

There has been widespread fury in Afghanistan and parts of neighboring Pakistan over the burning of the Quran at the Bagram Air Base. Several U.S. and NATO servicemen have been killed by angry Afghans, and violent demonstrations continue days after the incident despite the swift and sincere apologies issued by President Barack Obama and the chief of army operations in Afghanistan. The "inadvertent" burning of old Qurans was an inexcusable blunder on our part and shows how culturally insensitive our troops and advisers are, despite our presence in Afghanistan and Iraq for over a decade.

On April 8, 2009, DAVID A. GREENE SR., survived by loving wife Cynthia, daughter Terra Greene-Briggs (Ricky) brother Carl H. Green Jr. of PA, sisters Karen Persha (Dana) of FL., Deborah Singleton (Marcus), Carlie Fry (Elbert) of NC., Jacqueline Greene and Donna Green, grandchild Quran Briggs and a host of other family and friends. Mr. Green was pre-deceased by son David A. Green Jr. Family will receive friends at the family owned WYLIE FUNERAL HOME P.A. OF BALTIMORE COUNTY, 9200 Liberty Road Friday in the Chapel for the 11:00 A.M. visitation.

WASHINGTON - What's going on in Iran today is, without question, the most promising trend in the Muslim world. It is a combination of Martin Luther and Tiananmen Square - a drive for an Islamic reformation combined with a spontaneous student-led democracy movement. This movement faces a formidable opponent in Iran's conservative clerical leadership. It can't provide a quick fix to what ails relations between Islam and the West today. There is none. But it is still hugely important, because it reflects a deepening understanding by many Iranian Muslims that to thrive in the modern era they, and other Muslims, need an Islam different from the lifeless, anti-modern, anti-Western fundamentalism being imposed in Iran and propagated by the Saudi Wahhabi clerics.

KABUL, Afghanistan - Abdul Saboor is a small, quiet man with the wispy mustache of a teenager. He wears a tan V-neck sweater and clutches his geology books tightly to his chest. But last week, the Kabul University engineering student joined anti-U.S. protests and dreamed of "doing whatever I could to an American." He was one of hundreds who marched through the streets in the Afghan capital after hearing reports that a U.S. investigation had confirmed desecration of the Quran by interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

ALL TERRORISM has two things in common. First comes the hatred: a sick, conceited hate that can bring a man to slaughter women and children. Then, even more sick, comes the self-justification, the whining excuse that it is all in a noble cause and therefore justified. Thus the IRA butchered civilians "for Ireland." The fact that Ireland never asked for murder in its name is beside the point. The Baader-Meinhof gang killed "for the German working class." The fact that German working people were disgusted by them was irrelevant.

WASHINGTON -- The ruckus being raised by conservative Christians over the University of North Carolina's decision to ask incoming students to read a book about the Quran -- to stimulate a campus debate -- surely has to be one of the most embarrassing moments for America since Sept. 11. Why? Because it exhibits such profound lack of understanding of what America is about, and it exhibits such a chilling mimicry of what the most repressive Arab Muslim states are about. Ask yourself this question: What would Osama bin Laden do if he found out that the University of Riyadh had asked incoming freshmen to read the New and Old Testaments?

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., a Virginia Republican, yesterday stood by his demand for strict immigration controls that he said would prevent Muslims from being elected to Congress and using the Quran during swearing-in ceremonies. Islamic groups in the United States called on Republicans to repudiate Goode's remarks, which he first made in a letter attacking the use of the holy book in an unofficial ceremonial oath-taking next month by the first Muslim elected to the House. "I do not apologize and I do not retract my letter," Goode said emphatically during a session yesterday with reporters in the southern Virginia town of Rocky Mount.

T he American Muslim community continues to experience numbness and is in deep shock following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim psychiatrist who was born in Virginia to Jordanian parents, is accused of opening fire on his colleagues, killing 13 and wounding 38. The officer, who was commissioned in 2001, provided counseling to help alleviate psychological stressors that servicemen and woman experience....

Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, images have flowed out of the Middle East, scenes that depict fiery street protests, quiet prayer services or people just going about their day-to-day lives in the public sphere. After a while, something curious about these images emerges. There are no women in them. Ever. It's as if the other half of the population doesn't exist. When Al-Badr Al-Hazmi, the San Antonio radiologist who was first suspected and then cleared of complicity in the attacks, returned home after his detention, something equally curious happened, at least by Western standards.