Mosque, Arab targets attacked in Nepal after 12 workers murdered in Iraq

KATHMANDU (AFP) - Thousands of people rampaged through Kathmandu, setting fire to a mosque and Arab targets and ransacking employment agencies after 12 Nepalese hostages were murdered in Iraq.

Two men were shot and slightly wounded by security guards when they tried to storm the Egyptian embassy, which represents Iraqi interests in the Himalayan kingdom, police and a doctor said.

The streets returned to normal after the government clamped an indefinite curfew and declared a national day of mourning Thursday for the victims of the worst hostage massacre in Iraq since the US-led invasion.

Demonstrators, some chanting "Punish the Muslims!", swept through Kathmandu early Wednesday, throwing stones and ransacking any targets with Arabic-language script.

Protesters climbed on top of and set fire to the Jama Masjid mosque, the largest shrine of the city's small Muslim minority, after pulling out its furniture and electrical equipment for a sidewalk bonfire.

Riot police used batons to push the crowd of some 5,000 people out of a sensitive central area which includes King Gyanendra's Narayanhity Palace, a police officer said.

The protests erupted late Tuesday after news that the 12, who left the impoverished nation in search of jobs, were murdered by militants who abducted them about 10 days ago.

A mob made up mainly of youths broke windows of more than a dozen employment agencies blamed for sending Nepalese to Iraq and set fire to their vehicles, furniture and computers, police said.

An employee at Qatar Airways, one of the main airlines used by Nepalese seeking jobs in the Middle East, said dozens of angry people stormed into their premises and smashed furniture before setting the building on fire.

Many protesters also demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, saying he should take responsibility for the failure to free the hostages.

The government had repeatedly stressed that Nepal, which is fighting a bloody Maoist rebellion, was not part of the US-led coalition in Iraq.

"The terrorists who committed this gruesome act don't have any religion or principles. I call upon all citizens of Nepal to have patience," he said.

"We made honest efforts to save them but the militants never spelt out their conditions," Deuba said. "We are now trying our best to bring back the bodies of the victims."

His government announced compensation of one million rupees (14,400 dollars) for the families of each of the 12 slain hostages, a major sum in the one of the world's poorest countries.

The Himalayan capital's skies were patrolled by army helicopters, which were last called out last week when Maoist rebels fighting to overthrow the monarchy ordered a halt to traffic to and from the city of 1.5 million people.

Hindus make up more than 86 percent of the population in Nepal, the world's only officially Hindu state. But the kingdom has experienced little of the inter-religious violence that has scarred neighbouring India.

Muslims account for 3.8 percent of the 27 million population. Some 7.8 percent adhere to Buddhism in Nepal, which is the birthplace of the Buddha, with smaller religions comprising 2.2 percent.

Spontaneous protest strikes were called in the towns of Pokhara, Gorkha and Biratnagar with youths taking to the streets to stop vehicles.

A statement announcing the killings was posted on an Islamist website by an Al-Qaeda-linked group called the Army of Ansar al-Sunna.

It was accompanied by pictures of the grisly beheading of a blindfolded hostage, including one where his bloodied head was held up like a trophy by a hooded captor. A video showed the other Nepalese being shot.

"When I saw these Freepers advocating violence, pogroms, and mob terrorism against Muslims, as in Nepal today, I thought, as an American, that I should point out how bigoted and wrong it is to persecute people based on their religion. What a waste of time. They are as fanatic as the terrorists they hate so much. It's as if they are mirror images of each other.

I do have better things to do and won't continue wasting my time. Let them fester in their ignorance. It's all they will ever accomplish."

I suggest you read a little about Islam before you criticize people who oppose it.

For instance, the University of Michigan has a website which lists various historical books, including the Quran. You can go there and plug in a word into the search engine and it pulls out all passages in the book which contain that word. I suggest you plug in "unbelievers", "Christians" and "Jews" in the section that covers the Quran.

You might be surprised by the results.

In addition to the Quran, you might decide to read something about the Haddiths, Islamic history and contemporary Islamic governments and Islamic politico-religious movements.

Although Christianity has had its episodes of violence and intolerance in the past, NOWHERE in its most fundamental document - the New Testament - has such behavior been encouraged or condoned. On the contrary, it has been condemned again and again. And contemporary Christianity is outstanding in its general humanity and tolerance.

Even in the Old Testament, violence against unbelievers by the Israelites was extremely restricted, and the Jews throughout the history of persecution by other groups,
right up to the present, have been outstanding advocates of tolerance and non-violence.

Such is not the case with Islam.

The Founder of Islam was a fighter and a killer and a slaver, not a prophet and martyr. Islam advocates the use of violence as a means of spreading its belief system. It calls for the death sentence for anyone who attempts to convert a Muslim and the death sentence for any Muslim who converts.

It divides humanity into two groups - the "House of Peace" in which Islam is the established religion and all other faiths are reduced to secondary or tertiary class status and its practitioners deprived of equal protection before the law, killed, or driven out, and the "House of War". The "House of War' consists of all non-Islamic controlled territory which is the subject of attack to reduce it to Islamic control and its inhabitants to Dhimmitude or forced conversion.

Islam is replete with bizaar and oppressive rules and regulations like treating women as second class chattels, dogs as "unclean" animals, and a theocratic society in which religous laws are imposed on all residents regardless of faith as the norm.

Today, ALL non-Muslims are increasingly under attack by reinvigorated Islamic fanatics who wage war against non-Muslims through terrorism, theocratic tyranny, subversion and invasion.

Its hardly surprising that you witness here and in countries subject to this kind of mindless and vicious assault by practitioners of this cult the type of reactions which you personally find so offensive. Such behavior will increase as more and more non-Islamic individuals are effected by this growing menace.

To be sure, most Muslims are not terrorists and most Muslims are not personally involved in the reprehensible actions of these groups. But unless and until a sizable number of Muslims decide to "modernize" their faith by becoming more tolerant, less violent, and more proactive in condemning and opposing their fellow correligionists who are guilty of these acts, you can hardly expect the non-Muslim world to view Islam in anything but a negative light.

Thus far this has not occurred and the majority of Muslims, although not actively participating in these activities, have neither opposed nor condemned them. And their silence speaks volumes.

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