US angers muslims with dog leaflet

KABUL: US forces apologised yesterday for dropping leaflets in northern Afghanistan depicting a dog with a Koranic verse written across its body — an image highly offensive to Muslims.

A photo of the alleged leaflet circulating on social media shows a lion chasing a white dog — the same colour as the Taliban’s flag — with the holy verse “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is the messenger of Allah” superimposed on its body.

Dogs are seen as unclean creatures by some Muslims and the association of Islam with a canine in deeply religious Afghanistan has angered many people.

“Take back your freedom from these dogs. Help the security forces eliminate these enemies. Take back your freedom and ensure your security,” the leaflet says.

Social media users condemned the disrespectful design on the leaflets, which were dropped in Parwan province.

“Death to infidels, death to their servants,” one user posted on Facebook.

Another wrote: “They do this in a country with a 99.9% Muslim population. We will see how the [insurgents]... react.”

Maj Gen James Linder, who heads the US and Nato special operations forces in Afghanistan, apologised for the leaflet design which he said was an “error”.

“The design of the leaflets mistakenly contained an image highly offensive to Muslims,” Maj Gen Linder said in a statement. “I sincerely apologise. We have the deepest respect for Islam and our Muslim partners worldwide.”