Quote Originally Posted by Eden View Post
I think there is also the Afghan equivalent of NIMBY. The murder of a few villagers is unremarkable, and for most Afghans those who died were "not in my village, not in my clan, not in my valley, not in my tribe". There is no emotional connection and therefore no outrage. Desecration of the Qu'ran, on the other hand, attacks one of the few things that give most Afghans some meaning in their life. They must react to that act of desecration in order to preserve their concept of self-worth.
I think this is a very good analysis, with the qualification of course that if every Afghan thought that they absolutely had to react to the Quran burnings to preserve their self worth, there would be a lot more dead Americans right now that there have been.