Reports are surfacing that in the Russian Republic of Dagestan, where both Boston Marathon bombers lived, Qur’ans are being destroyed by Russian troops who are fighting Islamic terrorism. The thrust of an article published by the Daily Beast appears to be about generating sympathy for the people to whom the Qur’ans belonged (Muslims have been known to desecrate their own Qur’ans for exactly that outcome).

According to the author (h/t WZ):

On Nelli Radzhabova’s desk, a pile of materials was growing: hand-written accounts, complaints to local and federal authorities, flash drives with videos and photographs. Dozens of letters. All of it evidence of the destruction caused by a recent counter-terrorism operation led by Russian interior ministry forces in Vremenny, a village in the troubled North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. The images in Radzhabova’s files depicted demolished homes; furniture, clothes and other belongings turned to rubbish and partly buried by bulldozers; broken windows, walls and gates at the village school and clinic. In one of the videos, men in interior ministry forces uniforms are seen throwing people’s belongings down a hillside.

There were also photographs of a Koran cut down the middle by an ax, as well as swastikas and other humiliating signs painted over the village’s ruined walls—all done by the military, or so locals claimed. One line of graffiti said: “Moscow is the force.”

“Local policemen asked Russian soldiers not to attack our Koran, so a military commander called Moscow to complain that Dagestan cops were not letting them do their job. After that, our local policemen were called away from Vremenny,” said resident Aminat Magomedova in an interview with The Daily Beast. “Two days ago, a local man found two more Korans in a pile of garbage,” she added.

Radzhabova sympathized with her clients. She was a member of an oversight commission that the Dagestan administration had appointed to observe the consequences of the anti-terror operation in Vremenny, after over 100 village men had complained to authorities about their looted or destroyed property. Over the course of two months, as the military conducted counter-terror raids, special operations forces destroyed 42 homes, Radzhanova said.

“This is not a professional army, they are criminals. What will the children witnessing such special operations remember about Russian soldiers? They will remember them as robbers and murderers,” Radzhabova told The Daily Beast on Friday.

Radzhabova’s long time colleague and friend Magomed Shamilov clucked his tongue as he looked at a picture of the vandalized Koran—the holy book was sliced through the middle. “This is even worse than those French cartoons, worse than a bomb—it hurts me, a Muslim believer, to look at this,” Shamilov said.

Again, the Dagestan region is a hotbed for Muslim terrorists inspired by… uh… the Qur’an. Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to the region for six months prior to carrying out the Marathon bombing. A BBC article published a couple of months after that bombing opens thusly:

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger Boston marathon bombing suspect, will appear in court in just over two weeks. In Dagestan, the Russian republic where the brothers lived before emigrating to the US, few believe he is guilty. But an Islamist insurgency has been under way for years here – and it’s all too easy for young men to become radicalised.

There you have it. In Dagestan, two months after Dzhokhar murdered three innocent people and injured dozens more with bombs, he was supported by a majority of people in Dagestan. Couple that with the BBC’s assertion that it’s “all too easy” to create Muslim terrorists with the help of… the Qur’an.

After the Boston bombing, it was learned that Russian intelligence attempted to warn U.S. officials that the Tsarnaev brothers could pose an increased threat.

Yet, apparently, the Daily Beast author would rather you accuse Russian troops of having Islamophobia.