Thousands join protest over Koran abuse report

[muslimsistar]

Thousands join protest over Koran abuse report
Jalalabad
May 12, 2005

Afghan protesters set fire to a governor's office yesterday after police fired to break up a rowdy crowd, infuriated by a report that US interrogators in Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran.

Four Afghan protesters were killed and about 50 wounded, a health official said.

Government offices in the eastern city of Jalalabad were set on fire, shops looted and United Nations buildings attacked as thousands took to the streets, witnesses said. Police opened fire to disperse crowds.

"Twelve are in hospital, some in bad condition," the head of the city's health department, Fazel Mohammad Ibrahimi, said.

Pakistan yesterday voiced deep concern to Washington over the report in the latest edition of Newsweek magazine. It quoted sources as saying that investigators probing abuses at Guantanamo Bay had found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".

About 2000 students chanting "death to America" protested in Jalalabad on Tuesday, demanding an apology and punishment for those involved in the reported desecration.

But many more joined yesterday and ordinary residents were also taking part, said a witness who estimated that more than 5000 people were marching in the city, 130 kilometres east of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The protesters also denounced Afghan President Hamid Karzai, shouting: "Death to America's allies."

Windows were smashed, shops were looted and government buildings were stoned. Smoke billowed across the city from a burning office.

"The governor's office building is on fire," one witness said.

"The Pentagon is aware of the allegation," a US State Department official said. "They have started an investigation into it."

The US is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the Guantanamo naval base on Cuba.

Many of them were detained in Afghanistan after US-led troops drove the Taliban from power in late 2001.

- Reuters

[AmeenahY]

Pakistan yesterday voiced deep concern to Washington over the report in the latest edition of Newsweek magazine. It quoted sources as saying that investigators probing abuses at Guantanamo Bay had found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".

I haven't heard of this happening before. It is completely abhorrent and unacceptable. Why hasn't it been more widely reported?

[Muhammad Abdullah]

I have seen a lot about it on the news.

[umm_mohammed]

http://au.news.yahoo.com//050513/15/uamv.html
Saturday May 14, 04:57 AM


Protests across Muslim world over Koran report

KABUL, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Angry protests raged across the Muslim world from Indonesia to Gaza on Friday over a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, with calls for retaliation and a rising death toll.
In Afghanistan, at least nine people were killed on Friday, in protests over the report bringing the country's death toll to 16 this week in its worst anti-American demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban.

Washington sought to stem Muslim anger as allies demanded investigations and thousands took to the streets in outrage over the Newsweek magazine report that interrogators at the U.S. military prison in Cuba had put the Muslim holy book on a toilet and at least once flushed it down.

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 the Bush administration to express sympathy with the demonstrators and urge calm.

"We want Muslims around the world to know that we share and understand the concerns that they have. We are also saddened about the loss of life because of these demonstrations turning violent," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

The Department of Defense is investigating the allegation and "they take such allegations very seriously," he said, but did indicate when the investigation would be completed. "...We will not tolerate any disrespect for the holy Koran," he added.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also urged Muslims on Thursday to resist calls for violence, saying U.S. military authorities were investigating the Koran allegations and calling disrespect to the holy book "abhorrent to us all."

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, Zeeshan Haider and Saeed Ali Achakzai in Pakistan, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington and Nidal al-Mughrahbi in Gaza)

[Shadower]

I have been reading reports over this occuring for over one year now. First I heard of it, it occured in Bagram Airport in Afghanistan (that is where the US has one of their "terrorist" prisons) it has been happening for a while, but the US authorities still have no "evidence".

[Shadower]

The protests in Afghanistan are also blamed on HT

http://atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/GE14Ag01.html


Reports from Afghan sources indicate that the demonstrations have been organized by the Hizbut Tehrir (HT) and not by the Taliban, the Hizb or al-Qaeda. While one was aware of some HT activities in the student community in Afghanistan, the extent of its penetration not only in the student community, but also in the Afghan security forces, has come as a surprise.

In their preoccupation with fighting their so-called "war against al-Qaeda", the Taliban and the Hizb, American intelligence agencies and security forces seem to have remained oblivious of the subterranean activities of the HT, and have consequently been taken totally by surprise.

[Shadower]

May 16, 2005
Newsweek Got Gitmo Right
by Calgacus*
*Calgacus has been employed as a researcher in the national security field for 20 years

Contrary to White House spin, the allegations of religious desecration at Guantanamo published by Newsweek on May 9, 2005, are common among ex-prisoners and have been widely reported outside the United States. Several former detainees at the Guantanamo and Bagram prisons have reported instances of their handlers sitting or standing on the Koran, throwing or kicking it in toilets, and urinating on it. Prior to the Newsweek article, the New York Times reported a Guantanamo insider asserting that the commander of the facility was compelled by prisoner protests to address the problem and issue an apology.

One such incident (during which the Koran was allegedly thrown in a pile and stepped on) prompted a hunger strike among Guantanamo detainees in March 2002. Regarding this, the New York Times in a May 1, 2005, article interviewed a former detainee, Nasser Nijer Naser al-Mutairi, who said the protest ended with a senior officer delivering an apology to the entire camp. And the Times reports: "A former interrogator at Guantanamo, in an interview with the Times, confirmed the accounts of the hunger strikes, including the public expression of regret over the treatment of the Korans." (Neil A. Lewis and Eric Schmitt, "Inquiry Finds Abuses at Guantanamo Bay," New York Times, May 1, 2005.)

The hunger strike and apology story is also confirmed by another former detainee, Shafiq Rasul, interviewed by the UK Guardian in 2003 (James Meek, "The People the Law Forgot," Dec. 3, 2003). It was also confirmed by former prisoner Jamal al-Harith in an interview with the Daily Mirror (Rosa Prince and Gary Jones, "My Hell in Camp X-Ray," Daily Mirror, March 12, 2004).

The toilet incident was reported in the Washington Post in a 2003 interview with a former detainee from Afghanistan:

"Ehsannullah, 29, said American soldiers who initially questioned him in Kandahar before shipping him to Guantanamo hit him and taunted him by dumping the Koran in a toilet. 'It was a very bad situation for us,' said Ehsannullah, who comes from the home region of the Taliban leader, Mohammad Omar. 'We cried so much and shouted, "Please do not do that to the Holy Koran."' (Marc Kaufman and April Witt, "Out of Legal Limbo, Some Tell of Mistreatment," Washington Post, March 26, 2003.)

Also citing the toilet incident is testimony by Asif Iqbal, a former Guantanamo detainee who was released to British custody in March 2004 and subsequently freed without charge:

"The behavior of the guards towards our religious practices as well as the Koran was also, in my view, designed to cause us as much distress as possible. They would kick the Koran, throw it into the toilet, and generally disrespect it." (Center for Constitutional Rights [.pdf], Aug. 4, 2004.)

The claim that U.S. troops at Bagram prison in Afghanistan urinated on the Koran was made by former detainee Mohamed Mazouz, a Moroccan, as reported in the Moroccan newspaper, La Gazette du Maroc. (Abdelhak Najib, "Les Américains pissaient sur le Coran et abusaient de nous sexuellement," April 12, 2005.) An English translation is available on the Cage Prisoners site (which describes itself as a "nonsectarian Islamic human rights Web site").

Tarek Derghoul, another of the British detainees, similarly cites instances of Koran desecration in an interview with Cage Prisoners.

Desecration of the Koran was also mentioned by former Guantanamo detainee Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost and reported by the BBC in early May 2005. (Haroon Rashid, "Ex-Inmates Share Guantanamo Ordeal," May 2, 2005.)
http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=5959

Click on the link for links to the sources throughout the article.