Muslims Assault U.S. Embassy in Indonesia

yahoo/ap ^ | ALI KOTARUMALOS

[janetjanet998]

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.

Pakistani security forces, meanwhile, sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a planned mass demonstration and fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.

Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other European publications and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world, growing into mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.

Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book.

That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago.

In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet."

Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.

The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery."

A protest organizer said the West, and particularly the United States, is attacking Islam.

"They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name.

"We are fighting America fiercely this time," he said. "And we also are fighting Denmark."

In Pakistan, where protests last week left five people dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal — United Action Forum.

Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people to prevent the demonstration.

Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor."

But when about 100 other protesters tried to reach the square, officers fired tear gas and at least one gunshot to chase them off. More gunshots were heard later in the city, but it wasn't clear who fired them. At least two policemen were injured, one bleeding from the head. Several demonstrators also were hurt.

A crowd of 700 people, some throwing stones at police, tried to march toward Islamabad's heavily guarded diplomatic enclave about 1.3 miles from the square but with blocked by troops in armored personnel carriers.

Police also blocked about 1,500 protesters from reaching Islamabad from the city of Peshawar by putting shipping containers and sandbags on a bridge along a highway leading to the capital, said Mohammed Iqbal, a key member of the religious alliance.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, about 600 people staged a protest in Chaman, a town near the Afghan border, burning Danish flags and an effigy of the Danish prime minister.

Such protests prompted Denmark on Sunday to temporarily recall its ambassador to Pakistan, Bent Wigotski, because it was impossible for him "to perform his job duties during the present circumstances," the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement

[FreeReign]

Gee, I didn't hear about the US muslim protests fire bombing buildings, killing people. I did hear about a bunch of muslims crashing planes into our buildings. I think that we reacted to that one!

Gee, were you out in the street protesting radical Islam after the planes hit the towers? Most of the 4.5 billion people on this planet weren't.

Meanwhile you and all normal people simply gave support to our WOT.

BTW large parts of the WOT are being fought my Muslims against Radical Islam. Much of the Taliban infested Afghanistan was defeated by Muslims, not by us. Many of the Al Qaeda terrorists who have been removed have been removed by Muslim governments, from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia.

Hey, I'm not going to sugar coat Islam and tell you all is well. All one has to do is look at the violent passages in their book and all one has to do is see how their Madrasses are filled with hate.

I am going tell you that not all Muslims are aligned against us and I am going tell you is that the final victory in the WOT will not be some burned out crater that extends from Indonesia, to India, the entire Middle East all the way to France and even in this country.

I am going tell you is that the WOT will end when there are no more terrorists and when the religion of Islam has been reformed.

[Pyncho]

ExcursionGuy84: "When the President gives the order"
RouxStir: "Hold your breath wating for that..."

Your guys are making my point (as I beat a dead horse), namely that Bush's poll numbers are staying in the mid-40s because he is getting negatives FROM HAWKS, not simply from loony-lefty-head in sand doves. We FReepers may not speak negatively of the pres to pollsters, but like-minded others do, and will continue to do so.

The Media, led by FOX, has to begin looking at their polling internals to see that Bush is actually somewhere in the mid-60s (if you give him the Hawk-negatives).

[TeddyCon]

No argument here FreeReign. I certainly prefer our President's position of not coddling them and warning em' not you attack us again either too.

But I just think there's a reason why muslims were protesting at Ground Zero (of all places just) a few days ago, while they've not dared do any such thing is Moscow, even with their wanting to kill Russians for her being in Chechnya.

And the reason is, that they know our Russian friends would make em' pay a heavy consequence for their even protesting the war in Chechnya.

[ohioWfan]

The true answer is we already are.

THANK you for saying that Mike!

We ARE fighting back, and we are fighting HARD, and we are fighting SUCCESSFULLY.

It's not only Muslims who shut their eyes to the truth.

[ohioWfan]

We ARE fighting back, Stellar.

What do you think our men and women in uniform are doing in Iraq? Fighting Christians and Jews?

[ohioWfan]

So far his stratagy is cowtowing to these psycopaths!

That is a statement made out of complete and abject ignorance.

Don't embarrass yourself further, please.....

[MikefromOhio]

wow.

You are a REAL ray of sunshine today aren't you?

And hell we've killed nearly 10,000 in ONE of the Fallujah battles (April-May 2004).

[MikefromOhio]

pretty much.

[Brilliant]

Well, Bush says 30,000 dead total, so he's closer to my estimate than yours. Heck, I'll give you the 30,000. That's still a longshot from hundreds of thousands.

[MikefromOhio]

ok let me ask you this....

When has his President EVER underestimated?

All the time.

It's a lot higher than you think.

[MikefromOhio]

and you are STILL a ray of sunshine today.

[conservative physics]

You are one of the few people I have seen point that out.

That is exactly what is happening, although the media likes to spin the numbers to make it look like Bush's numbers are down because he is to conservative or to hawkish.

Bush's numbers were highest when people actually thought he was going to do what has to be done, they started going down when people realized he was just leading us to another Vietnam, where we fight with our hands tied behind our backs and refuse to fight the real powers behind all this and refuse the use the full might of the US military for fear of hurting some pansies feelings somewhere, and in the process throw away 1000's of American lives needlessly, because he won't fight the war the way wars have to be fought in order to win.

Bush has done more than the democrats would ever have done, but it isn't nearly enough. Meanwhile the threat grows in the shadows that we will someday have to confront and defeat, but each passing day between now and then will make that victory far more costly for our side, and all for nothing.

We could have leveled Iraq from 30,000 feet without having lost a single American life. But the pansies think that would be immoral... well I think it's immoral to needlessly send thousands of our boys off to die so that people don't think were mean, when we have the power to end this with no casualties on our side any day we want.

If it's important enough to go to war over, then it's important enough to use everything at our disposal to accomplish victory in the shortest time possible, with the least amount of casualties on our side.

Let the politicians clean up the mess afterword's, wars should be fought by generals.

[Brilliant]

Well here's what the nutcase media says:

Mr Bush said "30,000 have died more or less" in the invasion and ensuing violence, together with 2,140 US soldiers.

His estimate appeared to include both Iraqi civilians and security forces.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1666022,00.html


If we attack Iran, I'm hoping it's with a lot bigger bombs that leave no survivors and won't require boots on the ground.

[Bommer]

That is a statement made out of complete and abject ignorance. Don't embarrass yourself further, please.....

Didn't realize that the truth was ignorant to anybody.....but you!

US President George W. Bush sent greetings to Muslims in the United States and around the world as they begin observing the holy month of Ramadan. He praised Muslims' commitment to spiritual growth and charity during the season.

"Throughout our history, America has been blessed by the contributions of people of many different faiths. Our Muslim citizens have helped make our nation a stronger and more hopeful place through their faith, generosity, and compassion", he said in a press statement. (USINFO)

Oh! Heres their blessing!!

And a celebration for their contribution to make our nation a stronger and more hopeful place through their faith, generosity, and compassion

[MikefromOhio]

I think that if we want to do it correctly, we are going to have to put boots on the ground.

Assuming it doesn't go nuclear and I sincerely hope it doesn't, Iran will need to be beaten MILITARILY both in the air(that won't be hard) and on the ground.

However, Iran will probably go quicker and easier than Iraq will. A lot of the stuff in Iraq is being driven from Iran.

[ohioWfan]

Bommer...........are you seriously blaming President Bush for 9/11 because he meets with Muslims in the White House?

THINK about what you're doing here, and be responsible.

As for me........end of discussion.

[Brilliant]

I don't think we have the stomach for another conventional war. You can be certain that the number of dead would be much more than in Iraq. You would need to resurrect the draft. It would be vastly more expensive than Iraq and Afghanistan put together. Truman dropped the bomb on Japan in order to avoid just that kind of a war. And it was a good idea.

[Arizona Carolyn]

and our media refused to even print the cartoons, guess we're damned if we do and damned if we don't.

[cookcounty]

""Christians also have become targets."

Christians (and all other religions) became targets on the day Mohammed was born. Unfortunately, most nonmuslims don't realize this yet."

Christians and Jews are regarded as unclean and unholy by mainstream Islam. They are told to cleanse themselves if they touch a Christian or Jew. This is not a fringe idea, it is to be found especially and particularly among the people most likely to be at the mosque, and the exalted leaders of islam are the ones most likely to encourage it.

There are apologists for Islam that will tell us "oh it isn't like that," but are THEY invited to preach in the Grand Mosques? Never. Their credentials in Hatred are insufficient, they are pariahs in their own religion and too dull-witted to realize it.

[conservativecorner]

This is the same country that we helped when the tsunami hit. Ungrateful sacks of shite'!