Afghanistan: Nine die in new anti-US violence

KABUL (Reuters) - Anger spread in
Afghanistan on Friday over a report that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Koran, and nine people were killed and about 30 wounded in protests, police and residents said.

Earlier, Islamic clerics speaking at weekly Friday prayers told worshippers that protests over the reported desecration of the holy book were justified, but urged Muslims to shun violence.

Their words fell on deaf ears as clashes erupted in different parts of the country shortly after prayers ended.

Four policemen and national army soldiers were killed in a gun battle with anti-U.S. protesters in Ghazni province, 150 km (90 miles) southwest of the capital, residents there said.

Three protesters were killed in the remote northeastern province of Badakhshan, said provincial police chief Shah Jahan Noori. The situation had calmed down but he feared more trouble.

"It's like a tsunami, anything can happen. It's difficult to predict," Noori told Reuters.

"Apart from the three killed, 21 people, including two police, were wounded." Protesters had damaged several aid agency offices, he said.

Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition that investigators probing abuses at the U.S. military prison in Cuba found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."

Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence. The United States has promised to investigate the report.

One person was killed in a protest in Badghis province in the northwest and one in Paktia in the southeast, police said.

In all, 16 people have been killed in protests this week. About 100 have been hurt. Police stations, premises of the U.S.-backed government, and U.N. and aid group offices have been attacked and torched.

Early in the week it was college and high school students who took to the streets chanting "Death to America," denouncing their government and demanding punishment for those they believe desecrated the Koran.

But they have been joined by older men, many wielding sticks and hurling stones, and some armed.

"ABHORRENT TO ALL"

The United States commands a foreign force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American, fighting Taliban insurgents and hunting Taliban and al Qaeda leaders, including
Osama bin Laden, architect of the Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. cities.

But U.S. and other foreign troops have not been involved in policing the protests, leaving that to Afghan authorities.

Afghan analysts have said Muslim outrage over the desecration report sparked the protests, not hatred of America, but there is growing resentment of U.S. forces, especially in ethnic-Pashtun areas of the south and east where U.S. forces mainly operate.

The Taliban, ousted by U.S.-led forces in late 2001, drew support from conservative Pashtun clans. Pashtuns are Afghanistan's largest ethnic group.

Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice urged Muslims on Thursday to resist calls for violence, saying U.S. military authorities were investigating the allegation.

"Disrespect for the Holy Koran is abhorrent to us all," she said.

Protesters this week have also vented their anger against the U.S.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, who says he wants to forge closer relations with Washington.

Karzai is due to met
President Bush later this month during a U.S. visit.

Preachers at Kabul mosques said it was the people's right to protest but urged peace.

"We respect the Koran and support those who demonstrate," former state president Sibghatullah Mojaddedi told worshippers in Kabul's main Blue Mosque. "But we want peaceful demonstrations."

The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at Guantanamo Bay. Many were detained in Afghanistan after U.S.-led troops overthrew the Taliban.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8487011

Thousands of Palestinians have staged protests over the alleged abuse of the Quran at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Aljazeera has reported.

The protests follow mass demonstrations across Afghanistan in the past few days that have left more than 10 people dead and dozens injured after clashes with the police.

Demonstrations have also been held in Pakistan and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

The spreading anger comes after a report published by Newsweek magazine said that US interrogators at Guantanamo desecrated copies of the Quran by leaving them in toilet cubicles and stuffing one down a lavatory.

Friday prayers protest

In Palestine, Aljazeera reported that about 2000 demonstrators from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip held aloft copies of the Quran and Hamas flags as they marched through the streets after Friday prayers.

An American and an Israeli flag were burned during the demonstration. Nizar Rayan, a Hamas political leader, said the demonstrators were outraged by "the profanation of the Quran by the enemies of God at Guantanamo and by the Zionist enemies in the prison of occupation".

In the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank, about 400 Muslims protested against the alleged incident in the US camp after attending prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site also holy to Jews.

Meanwhile, several people were killed and more than 20 wounded in protests in Afghanistan on Friday, as anger spread over the report, police and residents said.

Across Afghanistan

The deaths occurred in Faizabad, capital of Badakshan province, when more than 1000 people demonstrated against the alleged abuses, deputy provincial governor Shams-ul Rehman told reporters.

"Three people were killed and 21 others including three policemen were injured in demonstrations today," he said.

Angry protesters torched the office of Focus Canada, an aid agency mainly funded by the Aga Khan, the billionaire spiritual leader of the world's 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims.

"Protesters had been shouting anti-American slogans and marching through the streets of the city but it was now more under control," the deputy governor said.

Police and security forces were on high alert across Afghanistan since clashes erupted between protesters and government forces on Tuesday.

Police clashes

They are the worst anti-US demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

Two protesters were killed on Thursday when gunfire broke out as police stopped them marching into the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad from a district to the northwest.

On Wednesday four people were killed in Jalalabad when police opened fire to control a mob that torched the buildings of several aid agencies, the Pakistani consulate and the governor's house.

One person died and four were wounded when rioters attacked a police station in Wardak province, which borders Kabul, on Thursday.

Four police officers and national army soldiers were killed in a clash with protesters in Ghazni province, to the southwest of the capital, residents there said.

Promised US inquiry

Aljazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, Pakistan, reported that mass demonstrations were held after the noon prayer in major Pakistani cities.

Protesters have set some government buildings ablaze and called for the departure of US forces from Afghanistan.

The US has responded by promising an inquiry over the alleged abuses.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used an appearance before a Senate committee on Thursday to make a special statement "directly to Muslims in America and throughout the world" on the reported incidents.

"Disrespect for the holy Koran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States," she said.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/608E1737-47A0-4D74-87EF-FCCD954189A4.htm

In June 2003, Boykin spoke to a church group over a slide show:
“Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.”
Why are terrorists out to destroy the United States? Boykin said: “They’re after us because we’re a Christian nation.”
...
During a January church speech in Daytona, Fla., Boykin recalled a Muslim fighter in Somalia who bragged on television the Americans would never get him because his God, Allah, would protect him: “Well, you know what I knew, that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God, and his was an idol.”
The Somali was captured, and Boykin said he told the man: “Mr. Atto, you underestimated our God.”
http://www.msnbc.com/news/980764.asp?cp1=1


"And we ask ourselves this question, 'Why do they hate us? Why do they hate us so much?'

Ladies and gentlemen, the answer to that is because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation and our roots are Judeo-Christian. Did I say Judeo-Christian? Yes. Judeo-Christian.

"That means we've got a commitment to Israel. That mean's it's a commitment we're never going to abandon.

"Go back and read the history books. Go back and read what the early founders of this nation said about Israel, about the Jews. John Adams wrote extensively of, he called it the Hebrews, the contributions they had made to our concepts of liberty and the importance of their contributions to the founding of this great nation.

"Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin each, independently, when asked to come up with a national symbol for this new nation, both came up with a national symbol that reflected on our Jewish heritage.

"One had Moses standing over the Red Sea with his staff and the water parting.

"The other had the Israelites coming out of bondage in the desert being led by a ball of fire. They recognized the importance of our relationship to the Jews and to Israel. Ladies and gentlemen, we will never abandon Israel, we will never walk away from our commitment to Israel because our roots are there.

Our religion came from Judaism, and therefore these radicals will hate us forever."

http://www.homestead.com/prosites-prs/generalboykin.html

Lieutenant-General William G. Boykin was appointed to the position of Deputy Secretary of Defence on March 16th, 2005. He has played a role in almost every recent major American military operation, serving in Grenada, Somalia, and Iraq.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_G._Boykin

Thousands of Muslims have staged protests around the world over the alleged desecration of the Quran at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Protests in Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia followed demonstrations across much of Afghanistan in the past few days in which 14 people were killed and dozens injured after clashes with police.

Saudia Arabia, Iraq and Syria have registered displeasure at the alleged desecration.

The spreading anger comes after a report published by Newsweek magazine said that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated copies of the Quran by leaving them in toilet cubicles and stuffing one down a lavatory.

Friday prayers protest

In Afghanistan, the protests have been the worst anti-US demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.

On Friday, the Muslim day of prayer, protests entered a fourth day in Afghanistan, spreading to new cities across the conservative nation where American troops maintain a heavy presence.

Afghan troops shot dead three people as protesters tried to storm the governor's house in southern Ghazni province, bringing the number of people killed since Tuesday to 14, officials said.

The police chief of Ghazni was shot in the chest, and US forces airflited him to the capital, Kabul, for medical treatment, witnesses and doctors said. Eighteen other people were injured in the clashes.

Clashes with police

Three died when about 1000 people took to the streets near Faizabad, capital of the northeastern Afghan province of Badakshan. Twenty-two people, including three police officers, were injured, and protesters torched the offices of three foreign aid agencies, provincial officials said.

The army opened fire on 300 protesters in the southeastern city of Gardez, killing one and injuring at least three, doctors and officials said. Some protesters were carrying guns, according to the provincial security chief.

Protests broke out for a second day in Kabul, although witnesses said only around 50 people turned out.

Afghan officials have suggested that elements opposed to the US-backed effort to rebuild the war-ravaged country have coordinated the violence.

Palestinians demonstrate

In Palestine, Aljazeera reported that about 2000 demonstrators from the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip held aloft copies of the Quran and Hamas flags as they marched through the streets after Friday prayers.

At the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, about 2000 demonstrators held aloft copies of the Koran and Hamas flags as they marched through the streets in a protest organised by the Islamist group.

American and Israeli flags were burned during the demonstration after Friday prayers, while 400 mounted a similar protest in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Muslim groups incensed

Nizar Rayan, a Hamas political leader, said Palestinian demonstrators were outraged by "the profanation of the Quran by the enemies of God at Guantanamo, and by the Zionist enemies in the prison of occupation".

Egypt's Islamist opposition also condemned the reports and said Arab leaders share the blame.

"The Muslim Brotherhood has been shaken by news of the desecration of the Quran by American interrogators at Guantanamo," the movement's leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said on Aljazeera television.

The banned but tolerated group "expresses its extreme anger, firmly condemns and deplores this odious and humiliating act, and calls on the American government to publicly apologise".

Calling for the toughest punishment to be meted out on the perpetrators, the Brotherhood blamed regional weakness for the reported desecration.

"If it wasn't for Arabs' paralysis and impotence, these criminals would not have committed this act," the group said.

Other parts of the world

One-time US foe Libya condemned the "irresponsible and immoral acts", saying they would likely nourish "terrorism".

In Iraq, Sunni and Shia imams alike spoke out against the alleged desecration in their sermons.

"We condemn the desecrations of the Quran carried out by American soldiers at Guantanamo," said Sheikh Abdel Zahra Suyaidi, a follower of Shia leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Ghafur al-Samarrai said: "In Guantanamo, the Quran is torn up and thrown in toilets while Muslims don't lift a finger."

Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally but guardian of Islam's holiest places, urged Washington to carry out a speedy investigation and punish those responsible.

"(Riyadh) calls on the competent authorities to implement a swift enquiry into the cases," a Foreign Ministry source said.

"If the cases turn out to be true, the Saudi government underlines the necessity of taking dissuasive measures... against those responsible (for the desecration) to prevent its repetition and to respect Muslims' feelings around the world."

Influential Arab paper

An editorial in the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi said that "the Arab world is totally submissive to the United States".

"Authorities, clerics and official media only react once they have the green light from Washington. From now on, the Arabs are like a corpse. They will not react, even if Mecca is occupied," the editorial said.

The director of the London-based Islamic Observatory, a self-proclaimed defender of Muslim rights around the world, poured
scorn on Arab leaders.

"Arab and Muslim rulers are apostates. Their people are scorned, frustrated and tied up," Yasser Serri told reporters.

Pakistan erupts

Meanwhile, Aljazeera's correspondent in Islamabad, Pakistan, reported that demonstrations were held after the noon prayer in major Pakistani cities.

Protesters set government buildings ablaze and called for the departure of US forces from Afghanistan.

Hundreds of Pakistani Muslims burned US flags and effigies of President George Bush in the capital, Islamabad, Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi, its second city, Lahore, and a number of other major towns.

Demonstrators chanted "Death to America" while speakers at rallies called by an alliance of hardline religious parties demanded the US government punish those involved in the reported desecration of the Muslim holy book.

They were also demonstrating partly because of a controversial cartoon in the Washington Times newspaper that portrayed the Pakistan as America's dog in the "war on terror" hunting down al-Qaida, Aljazeera reported.

US action

The lower house of Pakistani parliament in a unanimous resolution on Friday condemned the "shameful act" of desecration and demanded an inquiry by the United States to bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The reported act of sacrilege has shocked the people of every faith all around the world," the resolution signed by both the treasury and the opposition members said.

The US has responded by promising an inquiry over the alleged abuses.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice used an appearance before a Senate committee on Thursday to make a special statement "directly to Muslims in America and throughout the world" on the reported incidents.

"Disrespect for the holy Quran is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States," she said.
Aljazeera + Agencies

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Hundreds of Indonesian Muslims staged a rally at a mosque in the Jakarta to condemn the alleged desecration of the Koran by US interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.

The protestors gathered peacefully at the mosque in south Jakarta and read statements criticising the alleged action reported by US magazine Newsweek.

Newsweek said, citing sources, that Guantanamo interrogators had placed copies of the Koran in a toilet to unsettle prisoners.

"We demand the US Government apologise openly to Muslims worldwide and punish the perpetrators," one of the speakers, Muhammad al-Khattah, was quoted as saying by the state Antara news agency.

Muslims believe that the Koran contains the actual words of Allah.

Protests against the alleged incident have also erupted in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, seven people have died and nearly 80 others injured in three days of violent clashes between protestors and government forces.

Students in the Indonesian city of Makassar on Sulawesi island took to the streets and searched hotels and the airport for any Americans, Detikcom news portal reported. No Americans were found.

The Indonesian foreign ministry on Friday urged the United States to investigate the allegations, saying that if true, the incident would constitute an immoral act.

"Holy books like the Koran, the Bible and others must be treated with reverence. We urged the US Government to punish the perpetrators," said foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, is a strong opponent of the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

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President Hamid Karzai has said those opposed to Afghanistan's close links with Washington are responsible for riots which have left 16 people dead.
He said the protesters are "against the strengthening of the peace process".

More protests broke out on Saturday in the northern Afghan province of Baghlan, local officials told the BBC.

Unrest has been spreading across the country since Wednesday following an allegation that US guards at Guantanamo Bay desecrated Korans.

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