UPDATED - Rewind May 2009: US military in Afghanistan burn Bibles, no riots ensue

Reports indicate that thousands rioted today in Afghanistan against the US after a few used Korans were inadvertently burned with other trash.

It was also less than a year ago that a similar mob in Afghanistan killed 20 UN workers after Florida pastor Terry Jones burned a Koran.

As a matter of contrast, consider that the US military back in May 2009 confiscated and burned Bibles sent to a soldier by his church translated into Pashto and Dari.

As CNN reported:

Military personnel threw away, and ultimately burned, confiscated Bibles that were printed in the two most common Afghan languages amid concern they would be used to try to convert Afghans, a Defense Department spokesman said Tuesday.

The unsolicited Bibles sent by a church in the United States were confiscated about a year ago at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan because military rules forbid troops of any religion from proselytizing while deployed there, Lt. Col. Mark Wright said.

Such religious outreach can endanger American troops and civilians in the devoutly Muslim nation, Wright said.

“The decision was made that it was a ‘force protection’ measure to throw them away, because, if they did get out, it could be perceived by Afghans that the U.S. government or the U.S. military was trying to convert Muslims,” Wright told CNN on Tuesday.

Troops at posts in war zones are required to burn their trash, Wright said.

The Bibles were written in the languages Pashto and Dari.

Alas, no riots ensued and no one was murdered for this anti-religious outrage. And there certainly wasn’t any investigation launched.

It seems that for the US military, some holy texts (and religious outreach) are more equal than others. Just another episode in Barack Obama’s shariah-compliant Army of One.

UPDATE: It seems that there is more to the story:

A military official says Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions.

HT: Zip