Posted on 05/14/2005 3:07:18 PM PDT by Cornpone
The Pakistani foreign minister has said that if reports that US guards at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Koran are true, they should be severely punished. Khurshid Kasuri said that the allegations had provoked outrage throughout the Islamic world.
At least seven people died and many more were hurt in protests in Afghanistan this week over the issue.
The US has described the incident as abhorrent, and pledged prompt action if the allegations prove to be true.
A number of protest rallies were held in Pakistan on Friday.
'Outraged Muslims'
"Yes, it's abominable the reports that emanated from Guantanamo Bay," Mr Kasuri said during a three day diplomatic tour of Australia.
"It's unthinkable that someone could be so debased, inhuman, depraved as to provoke the feelings of not just those people there (in Guantanamo) but all over the Muslim world.
Protests in Pakistan have been relatively low key
"I have no doubt that the entire Muslim world is outraged. So I urge the United States administration to take very strong action against the culprits."
Mr Kasuri said while the US had "distanced itself" from the allegations, their seriousness required firm action.
He said that was especially the case in the light of similar allegations of prisoner abuse at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.
Unconditional apology
"In order to send a message, particularly about prison abuses ... I hope this time they take a much stronger action because the indignation and rage is universal."
"Even the worst enemy of the United States could not harm the image of the United States in the Muslim world as effectively as they've done if this is correct," he said.
There were demonstrations over the issue in several Pakistani cities after prayers on Friday, following days of protests and riots in neighbouring Afghanistan.
The US says it will investigate alleged Guantanamo abuses
The protests were organised by the six-party Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) alliance which called on the US to issue an unconditional apology or else it would step up its campaign to have the American ambassador expelled form the country.
But the BBC's Zaffar Abbas in Islamabad says that the protests were relatively small and largely peaceful.
Hafiz Hussain Ahmad, a leader of an opposition religious coalition, told worshippers at a packed mosque in Islamabad: "By insulting the Koran, they have challenged our belief. "We are hurt ... If we don't rise against Americans, if we don't give them a strong message today, they will do it again."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meanwhile appealed to Muslims to resist calls for violence, and promised that her country was investigating the allegations.
Ms Rice said on Thursday that desecration was abhorrent and disrespect for the Koran would not be tolerated.
The outrage in Afghanistan and Pakistan followed reports in Newsweek magazine that interrogators at the US Guantanamo Bay prison had flushed at least one copy of the Koran down a toilet.
Insulting the Koran or the Prophet Muhammad is regarded as blasphemy and punishable by death in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The US is holding about 520 inmates at Guantanamo Bay, many of them al-Qaeda and Taleban suspects captured in Pakistan and Afghanistan following the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US and subsequent US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
And so, the New Crusade continues ...........
First Abu Gharib , Now this crap. When will the USA finally come to the realisation that the news media is our greatest enemy ,not the Islamics.
"It's unthinkable that someone could be so debased, inhuman, depraved as to provoke the feelings of not just those people there (in New York City) but all over America.
One of these days, these animals are going to really
make US mad, they aren't going to like what happens then.
Too Bad.
Deliver the CEO of Newsweek to them once we can prove that it was a Newsweek fabrication and they get to keep him and the reporter who wrote it. Then we do as Ponchias Pilot did and wash our hands of them.
These idiots died over a rumor? Good heavens, they must be nuts.
So says the spokesman of the religious police as another bible is seized from a Christian tourist and destroyed.
This crap needs to stop now!
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and anyone else have no right to meddle in our country's affairs!!
What WE do is our business! Why should we bow to these demands from reprobates from FOREIGN GOVERMENTS that ban, desecrate the bible and persecute Christians??!!
America and Americans need to grow a spine.
There is no evidence that any American at Guantanomo desecrated the Koran. However, there is evidence that one of the detainees tore up a Koran and flushed it down the toilet.
So I agree... Shoot him.
Why is this happening? Because the West has forgotten its values, sacrificed common sense for political correctness, succumbed to moral relativism, and has become psychologically predisposed to dhimmitude. Let the new slave trade begin...but keep your hands off my daughter Akmed or you're dead.
now how many times do they burn the US flag?
Isn't that what the savages light their morning breakfast fires with, or, is that the Bible? I forget. Haven't been there in a while.
Debased? Depraved? Inhuman? IF that's debased, depraved, or inhumane, then what do they call it when Muslims rip open a pregnant woman's stomach take the baby out and split it in half so the mother has to watch it. Then they rape her and cut her throat,leaving her to bleed to death. I suppose beheading people is not debased, depraved or inhumane either. And what about the innocent Christians and Jews they murder just because they hate us? These depraved demons even kill other Muslims. The son's of Satan are the one's who are depraved and inhumane.
The Newsweek article was on false and unsubstantiated information. Printing the allegation on desecration of the Koran endangered our people in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Newsweek has gone beyond First Amendment free speech and committed a criminal and treasonous act. It should be charged criminally and fined enough to put it out of business.
let them issue one, we'll be ready i'm sure.
Instead, what will happen is they will be encouraged to print more such garbage, their sales will go up, and they will profit from the blood of Americans and other innocents. Its the modus operandi of our MSM today.
I'm all out of compassion for "enraged Muslims"..
Being "enraged" and out of control seems to be the default condition for the majority of the sheetheaded bastards....
How should Americans responded to the next beheading of an innocent captive??
Where is the Muslim outrage, that Muslims are murdering Muslims in wholesale manner with their cowardly car bombs and attacks on unarmed innocent Muslims in Iraq?
Sorry folks --- my compassion has been replace by revulsion, as far as the freaking militant Isalmists are concerned.
Really looking forward to their extinction....
Semper Fi
Until one of our government officials appeases them and offers them what they want.
This is really gonna get their panties in a twist.
Maybe they can kill a few thousand more of themselves protesting in outrage.
Actually RicocheT, after thinking about I have another idea. Having studied organizations like CAIR, MAS, ISNA and the history of the Muslim Brotherhood and how it infiltrated all the professional associations in Egypt as a prelude to its attempt to overthrow the government, I wouldn't be surprised if the responsible journalists for this story were Islamist stooges or moles. It would be a brilliant strategy to penetrate our MSM and use them as a vehicle to discredit America and it would add legitimacy to all the lies. That is, if our MSM was legitimate. The only thing that can guard against that kind of subversive information attack against us is responsible journalism. I think we have already lost that war.
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