Viral Video Spured on UN Murders
Afghanistan: Anarchic Internet
Target For International Control
by Dan Ehrlich

More than seven foreign UN workers and 15  Afghans have been killed over the burning of a Koran in America. This seems barbaric, lives lost in retribution over a nut case pastor’s action.

Even though both actions illustrate religious extremes, it’s hard to imagine the murder of people in Afghanistan on a humanitarian mission to help the very people who would eventually kill them.

Yet, in the light of history this isn’t so unusual. Today Jews are among the most humane people with a great reverence for life. Their toast in Hebrew is to life. Yet, in the good old biblical days capital punishment by stoning was the norm for blasphemy and adultery.

But the Jews could never reach the depths of Christianity, whose religious wars, mass executions by fire and assorted witch burnings were carried on until contemporary times mainly against people simply for not being Christian. In fact Rev. Terry Jones’ action was a benign version of Christian persecution, the type amplified in the past by the Ku Klux Klan.

However, what has happened in Afghanistan is another example of the media age in which we live and how a stupid minor event happening in rural Florida can have tragic consequences half-way around the world in rural Afghanistan. In past decades burning a Koran would never have been reported. Now, we can see horrors that previously were unknown and happening as we watch them.

Today, all you need is one would-be journalist with a computer an Internet connection and death and destruction could follow. Ever since Jones first threatened to burn Korans month’s ago, the web hacks and have been hovering and waiting for their moment to make big news out of a rather insignificant event to most Americans.

But, while not very important to Americans, we have seen over and over how deadly serious Muslims in Third World nations react to offenses against their faith. These often chaotic and deadly scenes may seem extreme to Western eyes, but to mainly undereducated peasant populations, religion is their main reason for being…the opiate of the masses.

We have a 10 year-long open ended involvement in Afghanistan and our presence is wearing thin on the population. You notice there are no riots in Iraq over the Koran burning. And, even in America hating Iran, the only protests are against the government. But maybe I’m speaking too soon. Most of the Arab world is preoccupied with its own revolts to worry about Rev. Jones.

The fact is, we shouldn’t have long-term involvements in nations such as Afghanistan…which is really a loose confederation of tribes who will never be united by the US backed Karzai Government. Besides, most of Al Qaeda is now in Pakistan, our ally.

In a world first made small by jet travel and now the Internet, any affront to Islam in America can instantly go viral across the Muslim world. The more we actively interact with this world, the more we run the risk of attack by religious fanatics and faithful believers.

While most Muslims aren’t terrorists, unfortunately most terrorists today are Muslim and its something only our disengagement from their lands and a restriction of First Amendment rights can mitigate. In the UK, for example, Rev. Jones could have been arrested for inciting race hatred.

I’m not advocating restricting free speech, that’s getting scarcer all the time anyway, but I am warning that the days of a free Internet are numbered. Events such as these Koran burning riots and killings coupled with the Wiki Leaks revelations and hackers gaining access to bank clients will press governments into united action to control and police the web.

Just as the Internet has brought the world’s populations closer together, it also has proven to be a potent weapon for change, revolution and even panic. Since the beginning of mankind, knowledge has been power. And too much power in the hands of the masses is seen as a danger to government by governments. Just look what happened in Egypt and what is happening in Afghanistan.