The 2011 Mazar-i-Sharif attack occurred on 1 April 2011 when a group of demonstrators attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, killing seven foreigners, including three United Nations staff members and four Nepalese guards. Additionally, five protesters died in the violence.

In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of the Christian Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, U.S., announced he would burn 200 Qurans on the 2010 anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He gained media coverage, resulting in international outrage throughout the Islamic world over his plans and pleas from world leaders to cancel the event. Jones' threat sparked protests in the Middle East and Asia, in which at least 20 people were killed. In early September 2010, Jones cancelled and pledged never to burn a Quran.Nevertheless, on March 20, 2011, Jones held a "trial of the Quran" in his Gainesville church. Finding the scriptures guilty of "crimes against humanity", the Quran was burned in the church sanctuary. Protesters in the northern Afghanistan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and elsewhere attacked the United Nations Assistance Mission, killing at least 30 people, including at least seven United Nations workers, and injuring at least 150 people. The killing of two US soldiers by an Afghan policeman on April 4, 2011, was attributed to anger over the burning of the Quran. American news analysts criticized and blamed Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, for drawing attention to the Quran burning.