Osiris
05-13-2005, 12:40 PM
Protests across Muslim world over Koran report By Sayed Salahuddin
42 minutes ago
Angry protests raged across the Muslim world from Gaza to Indonesia on Friday over a report U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, with calls for retaliation and a rising death toll.
Governments demanded investigations and thousands took to the streets in outrage over a Newsweek magazine report that interrogators at a U.S. military prison in Cuba had put the Muslim holy book on toilets, in at least one case flushing it down.
In Afghanistan, at least nine people were killed in protests over the report on Friday, bringing the country's death toll to 16 this week in its worst anti-American demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban.
The unrest spread to Pakistan, which called for a U.S. probe. Hundreds of people held a peaceful protest in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
In Gaza, several thousand Palestinians marched through a refugee camp in a protest organized by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Several hundred Palestinians also marched in the West Bank city of Hebron.
"The Holy Koran was defiled by the dirtiest of hands, by American hands," a protester shouted at the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, where U.S. and Israeli flags were also burned.
The escalating violence prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge Muslims on Thursday to resist calls for violence, saying U.S. military authorities were investigating the Koran allegations.
"Disrespect for the Holy Koran is abhorrent to us all," she said.
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God, treating each book with deep reverence, and the episode has embarrassed the United States, which has sought closer ties with Muslim allies as it wages its war on terrorism.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, desecration of the Koran is punishable by death.
DAMAGED REPUTATION
The United States' reputation had already been damaged by photographs released last year of physical and sexual abuse of Muslim prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Washington's allies demanded action and an investigation. Indonesia said those responsible must receive a "deserved punishment" for their "immoral action." Pakistan also called for a U.S. probe, and Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, said it was following the issue with "deep indignation."
Sentiments ran higher in the streets.
"Demonstrations serve no purpose, we should do something practical. I am ready to blow myself up for the sake of my religion to embrace martyrdom," said Mohammad Ghafoor, 18, a student protesting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Newsweek, in its May 9 edition, quoted sources as saying that investigators probing abuses at the military prison had found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Washington is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the naval base on Cuba, many of them detained in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The report prompted the worst anti-U.S. protests across that fragmented country since Americans invaded to topple Kabul's Islamist Taliban rulers for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
On Friday, Islamic clerics in Afghanistan told worshipers at weekly prayers that protests over the reported desecration of the holy book were justified.
They urged Muslims to shun violence, but their words fell on deaf ears as clashes erupted in different parts of the country, claiming at least nine lives, most those of protesters shot by police.
About 100 people have been injured there in days of protests, and police stations, U.N. and aid group offices and government premises have been ransacked and torched.
The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden.
(Additional reporting by Simon Cameron-Moore in Islamabad, Zeeshan Haider and Saeed Ali Achakzai in Chaman, Pakistan, and Nidal al-Mughrahbi in Gaza)
42 minutes ago
Angry protests raged across the Muslim world from Gaza to Indonesia on Friday over a report U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, with calls for retaliation and a rising death toll.
Governments demanded investigations and thousands took to the streets in outrage over a Newsweek magazine report that interrogators at a U.S. military prison in Cuba had put the Muslim holy book on toilets, in at least one case flushing it down.
In Afghanistan, at least nine people were killed in protests over the report on Friday, bringing the country's death toll to 16 this week in its worst anti-American demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban.
The unrest spread to Pakistan, which called for a U.S. probe. Hundreds of people held a peaceful protest in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.
In Gaza, several thousand Palestinians marched through a refugee camp in a protest organized by the Islamic militant group Hamas. Several hundred Palestinians also marched in the West Bank city of Hebron.
"The Holy Koran was defiled by the dirtiest of hands, by American hands," a protester shouted at the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, where U.S. and Israeli flags were also burned.
The escalating violence prompted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to urge Muslims on Thursday to resist calls for violence, saying U.S. military authorities were investigating the Koran allegations.
"Disrespect for the Holy Koran is abhorrent to us all," she said.
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God, treating each book with deep reverence, and the episode has embarrassed the United States, which has sought closer ties with Muslim allies as it wages its war on terrorism.
In Afghanistan and Pakistan, desecration of the Koran is punishable by death.
DAMAGED REPUTATION
The United States' reputation had already been damaged by photographs released last year of physical and sexual abuse of Muslim prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Washington's allies demanded action and an investigation. Indonesia said those responsible must receive a "deserved punishment" for their "immoral action." Pakistan also called for a U.S. probe, and Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, said it was following the issue with "deep indignation."
Sentiments ran higher in the streets.
"Demonstrations serve no purpose, we should do something practical. I am ready to blow myself up for the sake of my religion to embrace martyrdom," said Mohammad Ghafoor, 18, a student protesting in Peshawar, Pakistan.
Newsweek, in its May 9 edition, quoted sources as saying that investigators probing abuses at the military prison had found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Washington is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the naval base on Cuba, many of them detained in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The report prompted the worst anti-U.S. protests across that fragmented country since Americans invaded to topple Kabul's Islamist Taliban rulers for harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.
On Friday, Islamic clerics in Afghanistan told worshipers at weekly prayers that protests over the reported desecration of the holy book were justified.
They urged Muslims to shun violence, but their words fell on deaf ears as clashes erupted in different parts of the country, claiming at least nine lives, most those of protesters shot by police.
About 100 people have been injured there in days of protests, and police stations, U.N. and aid group offices and government premises have been ransacked and torched.
The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including bin Laden.
(Additional reporting by Simon Cameron-Moore in Islamabad, Zeeshan Haider and Saeed Ali Achakzai in Chaman, Pakistan, and Nidal al-Mughrahbi in Gaza)