Afghan youth throw stones toward US soldiers standing at the gate of Bagram airbase during a protest against Koran desecration at Bagram, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) north of Kabul, on February 21, 2012. Afghan protestors firing slingshots and petrol bombs besieged one of the largest US-run military bases in Afghanistan, furious over reports that NATO had set fire to copies of the Koran. Guards at Bagram airbase responded by firing rubber bullets from a watchtower, an AFP photographer said as the crowd shouted 'Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar' (God is greater). (Getty Images)Thousands of Afghans go apeshit over a report that NATO soldiers may have improperly disposed of Korans. At the same time, nobody cares about hundreds of Korans burned in a Shiite mosque torched by Sunnis in Iraq.
Call it a Muslim paradox.
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - About 2,000 Afghans protested outside the main U.S. military base in Afghanistan on Tuesday over a report that foreign soldiers improperly disposed of copies of the Koran.
U.S. helicopters fired flares to try to break up as many as 2,000 demonstrators who massed outside several gates to the base, chanting anti-foreigner slogans and throwing stones.
Roshna Khalid, the provincial governor's spokeswoman, said copies of the Muslim holy book had been burnt inside Bagram airbase, an hour's drive north of the capital Kabul, citing accounts from local laborers.
"The laborers normally take the garbage outside and they found the remains of Korans," Khalid said.
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