Muslims stage anti-US rallies over Koran abuse report

This speaks volumes for your character.

Okay, this was what I was referring to...



... here's a link, Our Koran abuse story might be wrong, says magazine,

and this can be found online, at the moment only from Chinese sources, for some reason...



this time in the People's Daily Online.


What do make of that? Really. "The the end of the beginning?" I just feel... uncomfortable reading that stuff...

Are you sure it was on this thread, Lash?

Karzai and Musharref are very big targets for jihadists.

They are being forced to make negative statements against us in the media to keep their heads. Has Saudi made some statement about the Flushed Koran?

This is why Condi made some mild sympathetic statements in the media, as well. Mostly to keep the heat off of Karzai and Musharref, IMO.

Yes, there were comments from Saudi Arabia, Iraq and.... Syria? (not sure about the last one), and riots in Gaza, Pakistan, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

Oh, I forgot Egypt. Comments from Egypt.

Newsweek Apologizes for Quran Story Errors By DINO HAZELL, Associated Press Writer
13 minutes ago



NEW YORK - Newsweek magazine has apologized for errors in a story alleging that interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran, saying it would re-examine the accusations, which sparked outrage and deadly protests in Afghanistan.

Fifteen people died and scores were injured in violence between protesters and security forces, prompting U.S. promises to investigate the allegations. After Muslim leaders in several countries assailed the U.S. over the allegations, Pentagon officials blamed Newsweek for the flare-up and accused it of "irresponsible" reporting.

"We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to victims of the violence and to the U.S. soldiers caught in its midst," Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker wrote in a note to readers.

In an issue dated May 9, the magazine reported that U.S. military investigators had found evidence that interrogators placed copies of Islam's holy book in washrooms and had flushed one down the toilet to get inmates to talk.

Whitaker wrote that the magazine's information came from "a knowledgeable U.S. government source," and before it published the item, writers Michael Isikoff and John Barry sought comment from two Defense Department officials. One declined to respond, and the other challenged another part of the story but did not dispute the Quran charge, Whitaker said.

But on Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told the magazine that a review of the military's investigation concluded "it was never meant to look into charges of Quran desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them 'not credible.'"

Whitaker added that the magazine's original source later said he could not be sure he read about the alleged Quran incident in the report Newsweek cited, and that it might have been in another document.

"Top administration officials have promised to continue looking into the charges, and so will we," Whitaker wrote.

Newsweek Washington Bureau Chief Daniel Klaidman said the magazine believes it erred in reporting the allegation that a prison guard tried to flush the Quran down a toilet and that military investigators had confirmed the accusation.

"The issue here is to get the truth out, to acknowledge as quickly as possible what happened, and that's what we're trying to do," Klaidman told the "CBS Evening News" on Sunday.

Many of the 520 inmates at Guantanamo are Muslims arrested during the U.S.-led war against the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in Afghanistan.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said in a statement that the original story was "demonstrably false" and "irresponsible," and "had significant consequences that reverberated throughout Muslim communities around the world."

"Newsweek hid behind anonymous sources, which by their own admission do not withstand scrutiny," Whitman said. "Unfortunately, they cannot retract the damage they have done to this nation or those that were viciously attacked by those false allegations."

After Newsweek published the story, demonstrations spread across Afghanistan and Muslims around the world decried the alleged desecration.

In Afghanistan, Islamic scholars and tribal elders called for the punishment of anyone found to have abused the Quran, said Maulawi Abdul Wali Arshad, head of the religious affairs department in Badakhshan province.

Arshad and the provincial police chief said the scholars met in Faizabad, 310 miles northeast of the capital, Kabul, and demanded a "reaction" from U.S. authorities within three days.

Lebanon's most senior Shiite Muslim cleric on Sunday said the reported desecration of the Quran is part of an American campaign aimed at disrespecting and smearing Islam.

In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah called the alleged desecration a "brutal" form of torture and urged Muslims and international human rights organizations "to raise their voices loudly against the American behavior."

On Saturday, Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, both allies of Washington, demanded an investigation and punishment for those behind the reported desecration of the Quran.

The story also sparked protests in Pakistan, Yemen and the Gaza Strip. The 22-nation Arab League issued a statement saying if the allegations panned out, Washington should apologize to Muslims.

National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said in an interview for CNN's "Late Edition" that the allegations were being investigated "vigorously."

"If it turns out to be true, obviously we will take action against those responsible," he said.

___
Unbelievable.

I've found that if it is not glaringly headlined HERE[/b] and HERE, it isn't BIG NEWS in The Arab Street. The story gets mention, but isn't featured prominently.


Is it just possible Western Media is driving the story?

Mr. Setanta,

I think Timber and Ivy were noting a descrepancy in the article that was posted. It's common to go off-topic in this forum, from what I've rea. But in this case, I think they were just correcting a distorted headline.


old europe said: Pardon?

You may have already figured this out, but Timber was referring to Events that get hyped in their run-up, but later falter or even fail to happen. They become footnotes in history and are dismissed. American figure of speech.

Hence: Whatever happened to... {The Brutal Afghan Winter}


Miss Lash,

Even a Lady scorned should show some charm.

Which story? The "they've done it" story, or the recent "no, we have no evidence that they have done it" story?

You have me confused with someone else.

Not interested in Muslim furor right now, but let's leave off on a lighter note.


http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

"I thinks this irresponsible and reckless behavior at the end of the media must not pass unquestioned (some reasonable punishment won't be a bad idea though) because people were killed in some countries just because some reporter thought it was cool to write about a subject considered irritating by millions of people. I'm not trying to justify the riots here; on the contrary, I'm against them but (and correct me if I'm wrong) one must not put matches near gasoline.

I haven't payed any attention to this story from the beginning plus, it's technically impossible to flush a 700 page medium sized-if not large-book down a toilet!!

What is interesting is that Iraq witnessed no demonstration at all, not even a single statement of denoencemnet from anyone although Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya kept running updates on this subject almost every news-hour and have always talked about the descretion incident as if it were confirmed news.

If this is to indicate anything I think it indicvates that Iraqis are more concerned about their own lives than they're about the "issues" of the Islamic world's dignity and more important (and here I see our community approaching a turning point) is that people are giving the media less credit than they used to do."


I have to learn to utilize the "Quote" system on this forum some day. Well...

G'night Ladies and Gentlemen.

Indeed.

Here is a NYT article that DID report Karzai - and it reminded me of what a terribly difficult line these moderate leaders walk between terribly dissonant forces. I would not take on their job for anything.

"Karzai Says Afghan Progress Is Protests' Real Target

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By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: May 15, 2005
GHAZNI, Afghanistan, May 14 - President Hamid Karzai returned from a trip to drum up more aid from Europe on Saturday to express shame and frustration at the violence that has racked Afghanistan over the last five days, leaving at least 17 dead and many wounded.


Darko Zeljovic for The New York Times
Ghulam Sakhi, an 18-year-old in Ghazni, was hit in the back by a stray bullet during protests on Friday.
At his heavily guarded office in Kabul, he blamed "enemies of peace" and "enemies of stability" for violently subverting students' protests over recent reports that American interrogators at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had desecrated a Koran.

"Who are they who have such enmity with Afghanistan, a nation that is begging for money to build the country and construct buildings, and during the night they come and destroy it?" he said, noting that 200 Korans had been burned when a library in Jalalabad was set on fire.

"In all the Islamic world the students were all studying, Afghan students were encouraged to rise up and start demonstrations," he said, "and then other elements got into the demonstration and in the name of Afghanistan's students and boys, destroyed Afghanistan's property."

He mentioned no names, but seemed to outline the agenda of Al Qaeda, elements in Pakistan and renegade Afghan commanders who want to keep Afghanistan in chaos.

But here in Ghazni, a town south of Kabul that was the scene of some of the worst violence, the analysis of who was behind the violence - which on Friday left a police sergeant and three civilians dead and a police chief and many others injured - was more nuanced.

Townspeople and officials said demonstrators' anger had been genuine, inspired by outrage and stirred up by local mullahs during Friday Prayer. But they acknowledged that "troublemakers" may have taken the opportunity to shoot at the police.

Mr. Karzai said he could well understand the anger at the reported desecration, a Koran flushed down a toilet. But he urged people to await the outcome of the investigation that the Bush administration promised.

"If it is true that it happened," he said, "we will ask the U.S. that the perpetrator be punished."

On Thursday, Gen. Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked at a Pentagon briefing about the reported desecration. He said the only relevant log entry found so far at Guantánamo concerned a detainee who was "reported by a guard to be ripping pages out of a Koran and putting in the toilet to stop it up as a protest." He said that incident had not been confirmed.

There is at least one known incident in which a Guantánamo interrogator mistreated Korans. According to a former detainee there, whose account was confirmed by a translator, the interrogator stepped on Korans that had been piled up, prompting a hunger strike. The incident was reported in The New York Times on May 1.

Mr. Karzai also criticized the destruction of a cellphone tower that had been knocked down south of Kabul. That, he said, set back Afghanistan's attempt to stop having to route calls through neighboring Pakistan.

"What's the point of bringing down the telephone tower?" he asked. "Was it friendship with Islam? Was it friendship with Afghanistan?"

He said the demonstrations were an attack on Afghanistan and its progress. "It was to defame Afghanistan and to stop its partnership with the world," he said.

Several more demonstrations took place Saturday in the southern border town of Spinbaldak, and in Zabul, Farah and Badghis Provinces, but all were peaceful, Reuters reported.

In Ghazni, tensions remained high. Shops closed early and streets emptied as rumors spread of another stone-throwing demonstration.

In the violence Friday, even the governor, Hajji Asadullah Khan, was hit in the head by a rock from the crowd. Doctors at the town hospital said they had treated 19 wounded.

Among them was a teenager, Ghulam Sakhi, who was pushing his wheelbarrow down the street on his way home when he was shot. "I was shot from the back; I saw it was a soldier of the National Army," he said, wincing on his hospital bed.

Doctors said they had also treated a soldier of the Afghan National Army who was injured by a rock. They said they had to hide him in a room in the women's ward.

"The people were very angry," said Muhammad Ilyas, 22, a metalworker who protested.

The demonstrators, infuriated by accounts that Americans had also burned Korans, burned pictures of President Bush, he said.

Townspeople interviewed were sometimes confused about details, but they were convinced that Americans had done something terrible against their religion."

Interesting, P'star, but.....



whereas Aljazeera wrote on Friday



But then, I've got no clue what "have registered displeasure" could possibly mean...

I think its pretty much all the same story. Even earlier this week, Friday, in particular (the favored day for Muslim demonstrations), when the "rampaging crowds" seemed to be at their peak, the story wasn't given extraordinary play either on Al Bawaba or Al Jazeera. The Abu Graib scandals got much bigger play in the Middle Eastern press when they were current that this flap is getting now. I really hafta begin to wonder if perhaps this isn't a bigger deal anong Westerners-at-large than among Islamics-at-large.

Looks like the press created it, and fed it.

I wonder if they will get raked liked the BBC did for their faked story.

Timber, it was on Aljazeera at least on Saturday: Protests over Quran report grow

Sure its been getting mention. o e, I don't say it isn't. It is not BLARING HEADLINE NEWS there, though.

Hmm - dunno - but, Fox never does.

What story did Fox fake?