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BACK TO : PROPAGANDA 'OWN GOALS' IN THE GWOT
Muslims Outraged Over Koran Mistreatment by Lin Noueihed 
Muslims Outraged Over Koran Mistreatment Release of Allegations Prompt Angry Protest Around the Muslim World By Lin Noueihed Reuters Friday, May 27, 2005; 6:08 PM BEIRUT (Reuters) - Waving copies of the Koran and chanting anti-American slogans, Muslims across the world took to the streets on Friday to protest at abuse of their holy book by interrogators at a U.S. prison camp in Cuba. In Malaysia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt, outraged Muslims burned U.S. flags and vowed revenge. "O America, listen, listen, with my blood I will protect my Koran," shouted thousands of Lebanese at a Hizbollah rally in a Shi'ite suburb of Beirut. "America is the enemy of Muslims." Similar protests swept the country's Palestinian refugee camps, where bearded Islamists hoisted pictures of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and his Iraq-based ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp said on Thursday that the U.S. military had identified five incidents of "mishandling of a Koran" by U.S. personnel there. But Brigadier General Jay Hood said investigators had found no credible evidence that a copy had been flushed down a toilet, as some detainees have alleged. U.S. Army Gen. John Craddock, who is responsible for the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, said he did not expect the inquiry would show more than the five cases. "It's almost complete, regarding allegations that the Koran was flushed down the toilet," Craddock said of the inquiry. "I think he (Hood) has to do one or two more things and he'll close that inquiry up." The U.S. comments have done little to calm anger among Muslims, who consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each copy with deep reverence. Thousands of Islamic activists protested in Pakistani and Bangladeshi cities after Friday prayers, burning U.S. flags and effigies of President Bush and his allies -- Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. "The days are not far off when the United States will disintegrate into pieces, by the curse of Allah, as it has insulted the holy Koran," the radical Islamic Constitution Movement's Moulana Hemayetuddin told a rally in Dhaka. In Morocco, up to 1,000 Islamists chanting "Allah Akbar!" (God is Greatest) held a protest in front of parliament building in the capital Rabat to denounce the abuse. "Damn you Bush! The Koran is above all of us," they chanted. MUSLIM OUTRAGE Muslim countries have condemned the reported Koran abuse. Many Muslims and Arabs are already angry at the U.S.-proclaimed war on terrorism, which they believe targets their communities. The United States now holds about 520 detainees at Guantanamo, a high-security prison opened in January 2002 for non-U.S. citizens caught as suspected terrorists. Most of the prisoners were detained in Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces ousted the hardline Islamist Taliban government. Protesters see any mishandling of the Koran as further evidence that the United States seeks to humiliate Muslims and insult their faith, after photographs of Iraqi detainees being abused by U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison shocked the world. Hundreds of Jordanians protested after noon prayers and marched on a main square in Amman. "O Americans, your battle with the youths of the Koran will only bring you death," chanted the crowd. With anti-American sentiment already strong in the Muslim world after the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the report sparked riots in Afghanistan in which 16 people died. A report in the May 9 issue of Newsweek magazine said U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo put copies of the Koran on toilets and flushed at least one down to make detainees talk. Newsweek later retracted the story. But the issue has refused to go away. Thousands of Egyptians, led by members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, burned U.S. and Israeli flags on Friday, some accusing their government of not taking a strong position on reports that U.S. troops had kicked or trampled on the Koran. In Beirut, Hizbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem demanded the perpetrators be punished. |