Poisonous Cocktail

Why is it that the deliberate murder of innocent Muslim civilians in Syria - is met with relative calm in the Islamic world?

Yet at the same time the inadvertent burning of some copies of the Koran - leads to violent  protest and killings in Afghanistan.

I'm sure that Islam places much greater weight on the price of a human life over the fate of a book - yet the two stories tell their own tale. 

Fundamentalism combined with religion makes for a heady brew - mix that with a dash or two with tribal politics and you end up with a truly poisonous cocktail.

Now the bulk of the population may be less extreme and more reasonably minded.

But there's no doubt that the tribal and feudal mentality of the fundamentalists still holds sway in Afghanistan - and large parts of the middle east.

As far as I can see all the supposed gains in Afghanistan are likely to melt away - as soon as the international forces complete their withdrawal.

The waters will close over them and the country will return to a culture which lies somewhere between the bronze age and medieval times - because beneath the surface very little seems to have changed.
Except there are lots of Land Cruisers, guns and mobile phones - to keep the drug barons and Afghani warlords in business.

The Afghan President - Hamid Karzai - immediatelyyinflamed the situation by calling on NATO to put those responsible on trial - and by announcing publicly that his demands had been agreed.

NATO of course they had done no such thing - because there was no evidence that anyone involved had committed a crime.

But when does a corrupt politician let the truth get in the way of a good 'angry mob' story - which has since led to the deaths of two people?

The sooner we get out of Afghanistan the better.