Afghanistan Opinion: The How, Why, and Hope Around the "Quran Burning" Protests

Photo: Akhtar Soomro (Reuters)There is a tiny, almost miniscule, shift this time, I have noticed a small number of young Afghan professionals quietly criticise the protests. Their voices are so faint, their numbers so low that this by no means can be considered an event. But, given the silence before this, it is a near-miracle.

What those coy this-is-not-rightsand we-shouldn't-be-protesting gave me and others like me is a glimmer of almost unreachable hope. Maybe this is the beginning of a small, on-line progressive movement that seeks a voice. Maybe it is just frustrated young men and women who will be bullied back into conformity, but it is a change.

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