Karzai: No bombs in turbans, PLEASE!

Note from Ed.: Walt is still ROFL, so has left it to me to pass on the following report from Reuters.

Reaction today to recent news from Kabul, soon to be renamed Kablammo. Afghanistan's democratically-elected President, Hamid Karzai (half-brother of the late Wally) has asked the country's Muslim elders to use their religious influence to sway Islamist insurgents to stop hiding suicide bombs in their turbans.

In July, two separate turban bombings killed the mayor of the Kandahar (recently handed over by the Canadians to the Americans), and a senior cleric in the city. The question now is how to tell the turbans containing explosives from those containing only air and hot air, without being politically incorrect by, say, demanding that the ragtops be removed and searched.

One might think that there would be no objection to the removal and examination of turbans, but suicide bombers in Afghanistan and Pakistan have also used women's burqas to disguise themselves. If you follow the idea to its logical conclusion, burqas and veils etc should also be removed, and the Prophet definitely wouldn't approve of strip searches!

A spokesman for the Krazai guy said, "From our point of view, by misusing Islamic values [the insurgents] want to draw a bad picture of Islam for the people of the world."

Siyamak Herawi said Karzai asked the clerics to launch a campaign to convince insurgents not to use turbans and other religious attire to carry out suicide bombings, not to target mosques and to make them aware that suicide was un-Islamic. "Good Muslims should be killing infidels," the spokesman said, "not each other!"

A Taliban spokesman -- no "spokespersons" in the Muslim world -- retorted that the Islamist group had never hidden a bomb in a turban. While it did take credit for the killing of Kandahar mayor Ghulam Haidar, Zabihullah Mujahid said the bomb had not been hidden in a turban.
"If using a turban is an Islamic respectful and cultural issue," he asked, "then why did Karzai put it on the head of many foreign generals in the past years?"

Appeal from Walt: But seriously folks... If this trend continues, there is bound to be a shortage of turbans in Afghanistan and Pakistan in the very near future. Please do your part to help the poor people of those countries. Contribute to Walt's new campaign: Rags for the Middle East! Send your bandanas, handkerchiefs and other rags -- please wash first -- to the usual address.