Posted on 05/22/2005 6:32:39 AM PDT by Flavius
JAKARTA : Hardline Indonesian Muslims at a rally attended by thousands have vowed to wage war against America and said those who desecrate the Koran should be killed.
"Destroy America and its allies! Kill those who desecrate Islam!" Muhammad Iqbal alias Abu Jibril, from the Indonesian Mujahedin Council (MMI), exhorted thousands of protestors through a public address system outside the US embassy.
Muslims around the world have demonstrated in recent days against alleged abuse of the Muslim holy book at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The unrest, which left at least 14 people dead in Afghanistan, followed a report in Newsweek magazine that US investigators had found that interrogators at the prison threw a Koran in a toilet to rattle Muslim inmates.
The magazine last Monday retracted the story after its source developed doubts, and the Pentagon has said its own investigation has found no evidence to support the allegation that Korans were defiled at the off-shore US prison.
Jibril told the Indonesian protestors that US President George W. Bush and his allies are "infidels" who "arrest and kill (Muslim) Ulemas."
Another speaker, Muhammad Wahiduddin, of the Hizbut Thahrir group, said no Muslim could accept the Koran's being thrown into a toilet.
"We are ready to wage war on the infidels of America because glory is in the hands of Islam," he shouted.
Police estimated about 7,000 protestors gathered outside the US embassy.
Members and supporters of 39 Muslim groups including Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations, the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, joined the march from a central city roundabout to the embassy about 1.5 kilometres away.
Mostly wearing white, with the women veiled, the protestors carried small signs reading: "Rid Islamic Countries of US imperialism" and "The desecration at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib cannot be tolerated."
Two large banners greeted the protestors as they arrived at Jakarta's main Monas square that faces the embassy.
"United Muslim Action, condemns the desecration of the Koran by US soldiers," said one banner which called on Bush to stop desecrating Islam and insulting Muslims. It urged closure of the Guantanamo facility and the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq where US troops have been found guilty of abusing detainees.
"Muslims united against US arrogance," said the other large banner.
Jibril, the fiery speaker at the rally, was detained for almost three years in Malaysia under the country's tough Internal Security Act on suspicion of involvement in terrorism and links to a militant group, Mujahidin Malaysia. He was deported to Indonesia in May last year and sentenced to five and a half months' jail for an immigration offence.
The Indonesian Mujahedin Council which he represented at the rally is an umbrella organization seeking Islamic Sharia law. It is headed by Abu Bakar Bashir, who was sentenced in March to 30 months in jail for his involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the Bali bombings.
Judges cleared Bashir of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks.
The Bali bombings in October 2002, killed 202 people on the resort island. Most of the victims were foreign tourists.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, where most people practise a moderate and tolerant form of the faith. - AFP/de
Hindus rip a Koran to shreds...

Americans in Ohio burn a Koran...
" LOL 7000 - hihihihihi No way. What a joke - "
I agree totally... 7000 protestors in a country of at least 200 million Muslims? Sounds pretty docile to me... I think more people than that congregated to dispose of their Dixie Chick CDs :-)
Move along people, there's nothing to see here.
They make it really hard not to hate them, don't they?
Must be the only ones that actually have a concept of what a flush toilet is ...
Ungrateful, primitive neanderthals Bump.
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