The Dreaded Balls of Blasphemy

Sun, Aug 26, 2007 at 9:23:54 am PDT

US troops are accused of “insulting Islam” again, for distributing soccer balls bearing the flag of Saudi Arabia: ’Blasphemous’ balls anger Afghans.

A demonstration has been held in south- east Afghanistan accusing US troops of insulting Islam after they distributed footballs bearing the name of Allah.

The balls showed the Saudi Arabian flag which features the Koranic declaration of faith. The US military said the idea had been to give something for Afghan children to enjoy and they did not realise it would cause offence.

The footballs were dropped from a helicopter in Khost province.

Some displayed flags from countries all over the world, including Saudi Arabia, which features the shahada, one of the five pillars of Islam - the declaration of faith.

The words, which include the name of Allah, are revered, and Muslims are very sensitive about where and how they can be used.

“Sensitive,” in this case, being defined as “prone to murderous rage.”

To show how sensitive they are to this extreme sensitivity, the BBC sensitively blurs the offensive segment of the ball in their photograph.

(Hat tip: LGF readers.)