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Translation: by Brett Gasper "Ah,Here it is, kita'ab Allah (Book of Allah), this is the root of all disaster: Book of Allah. I'm not certain what day it is of this reviled month of Ramadan! You are making the tearing of the Quran such a big and dangerous thing.. It is only natural to want to tear this book! Those sons of kelba (dogs) think they can threaten me and dare me to tear the Quran - but I want to prove to them that they are nothing... and what is the big deal in tearing this book? Here the...

Harry Reid debated holding hearings on Koran desecration. Sen. Lindsey Graham,.. wishs to “hold people accountable” for Koran burnings,.. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told an interviewer of his desire for a First Amendment exception that would allow those who immolate the Muslim holy book to be punished.

A female Palestinian security prisoner in Ashkelon’s Shikma Prison tore up pages from a copy of the Quran and threw them toward the toilet during a routine search Sunday, the Israel Prison Service said. The 22-year-old detainee from a village near Hebron is an Islamic Jihad member who was arrested three months ago in suspicion of hostile terror activity. She resisted a routine search by a female guard, and then took out torn Quran pages from her skirt and hurled them toward the toilet. The guard handed the torn Quran pages to the prison’s director, and Prison Service officials said...

Ten people died Monday and more than 40 injured in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi following clashes between Muslims and Christians over the supposed desecration of the Koran, a Red Cross official said. The official however pointed out that the violence was not linked to Saturday's riots in northern Nigeria over the publication of cartoons of Prophet Mohammed by a Danish newspaper which claimed at least 24 lives. "The incident started at 10 am (0900 GMT) today at the Government Comprehensive High School," after a teacher allegedly confiscated a Muslim religious document a female student was reading in class,"...

Big media was clearly on the defensive in 2005. Dan Rather left the CBS News anchor desk under a heavy cloud while other executives were fired in the wake of Memogate. The use of anonymous sources put journalists like Judith Miller and the NY Times in an uncomfortable spotlight. Newsweek's erroneous report that US Marines desecrated a Koran touched off a firestorm of deadly protests around the world. CNN news chief Eason Jordan was forced to resign over comments at an international forum. And an Al-Jazeera reporter was even convicted for his links to Al-Qaida. In each controversy, bloggers successfully...

Desecration of Holy Quran: Mob burns down churches in Sangla Hill Staff Report SHEIKHUPURA: A crowd of about 1,500 protesters attacked and burned two churches on Saturday following reports that a Christian man had desecrated the Holy Quran, police said. A school, a student hostel and the home of a priest were also torched in the incident near the town of Sangla Hill, said Ali Asghar Dogar, a police official. The attacks came a day after a local Muslim resident accused Yousaf Masih, a Christian, of burning a one-room Islamic school along with copies of the Holy Quran. Dogar said...

Islamabad: Tension prevailed near the eastern city of Lahore where an angry mob set ablaze three churches, Christian schools and residence of the local bishop, following reports that a youth allegedly desecrated the Holy Quran. Around fifty protestors were arrested and dozens injured in a baton-charge by police personnel when the mob went on a rampage following reports that one Yousuf Masih had allegedly burnt a large number of copies of the Holy Quran last night in Sangla Hill locality, Pakistan's NNI news agency quoted eye witnesses as saying. Masih, who was reportedly caught by the locals, later escaped.

LAHORE , Pakistan (AP) - Hundreds of Muslims attacked and burned two churches in Pakistan on Saturday after reports that a Christian man had desecrated Islam's holy book. No one was injured in the blazes. A school, student hostel and the home of a priest were also torched by the crowd of about 1,500 Muslims near the town of Sangla Hill, about 80 miles northeast of Lahore, said police official Ali Asghar Dogar. The attacks were being investigated. About two dozen people had been arrested, Dogar said. The fires came a day after a local Muslim resident accused a Christian...

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they? And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it...

Every time I turn around, another anti-war person is saying how much he or she "supports" the troops. No matter how vicious the attack on the policy in Iraq or the Afghanistan situation or the proactive strategy to confront worldwide terror, it always seems there's a "support the troops" caveat at the end of the blistering dissent. Okay, fine, opposing the Iraq war doesn't mean disrespect for the military, that's true. But the benefit of the doubt only goes so far. Now there's a litmus test, a way to expose the folks who really don't support the troops no matter...

Newsweek -- lessons of 'Qurangate' Commentary: Editor Mark Whitaker reflects on the crisis By Jon Friedman, MarketWatch (In May, Newsweek Magazine reported, and subsequently retracted, a story saying that the American military had desecrated the Quran at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. The brief item touched off an international furor and became the most electrifying media story of 2005. In the first of a two-part Media Web series, Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker reflects on the crisis. On Monday, Newsweek Worldwide Publisher Greg Osberg discusses the business angle -- and the state of magazine publishing) When I interviewed Whitaker, 48, for more...

LAHORE: Residents in Raiwind staged protests and disrupted life in the area after another Quran was desecrated in the area on Wednesday morning – the second this week. Police lodged a first information report (FIR) against unidentified individual(s) for desecrating a copy of the Quran in a mosque toilet. The FIR was registered on the complaint of Bashir Ahmad, the qari of Masjid Gulzar-e-Habib. Police said that a copy of the Holy Quran had been taken from the mosque and thrown in the toilet. Muhammad Hanif, who lives next to the mosque, found the Quran in the toilet at around...

Whilst opining in his boyishly incomprehensible way, Olbermann claims it is the Bush administration's fault that Newsweek ran their meretricious story about Korans being flushed down toilets at Guantanamo.   To illustrate his brilliant point, he reminds us of the Bush administration's complicity in not shooting down the forged "Killian Memos" of Rathergate fame:         June 1, 2005 | 3:54 p.m. ET More questions than answers (Keith Olbermann) [W]eren't those members of the military or the government with whom Newsweek vetted the plausibility of its item, honor-bound to say "you can't print this"?Or would somebody rather play politics with this? The...

(CAIR-MD/VA) has been told by Muslim community leaders in Blacksburg, Va., that a recent incident involving burned Qurans left outside a local mosque was not bias-motivated. According to those leaders, the Qurans were burned accidentally...

The grievance industry went into overdrive last month when burned Korans were reportedly discovered at a local mosque in southwest Virginia. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations issued an immediate press release on June 16 calling for "Americans of all faiths to obtain and read the Quran after burned copies of Islam's revealed text were found" in a shopping bag at the front door of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg. Repent, all ye infidels! Incensed CAIR officials contacted the FBI and pressured authorities to treat the incident as possibly "bias-related." CAIR-MD/VA Director of Civil Rights Shama Farooq lectured that "A...

MIAMI -- Attorneys for two terrorism suspects tied to an alleged al-Qaida dirty bomb suspect are asking for the dismissal of a federal indictment against them based on a jailer's mishandling of a Quran and intimidating jail cell searches that removed handwritten papers in Arabic. The defense claims the seizures from the cells of Adhan Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi in May and June amount to government misconduct and an unconstitutional intrusion on trial preparation.

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- Police are investigating whether a hate crime took place when someone left a bag of burned Korans in front of an Islamic center. Members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg were shocked when they arrived at the building for Saturday prayers and found a plastic shopping bag filled with burned copies of the Koran at the front door. "It is a shame that people are so ignorant," said Idris Adjerid, 20, a member of the center. Mr. Adjerid told the Roanoke Times that he has attended the center since 1997 and nothing like this has happened...

BLACKSBURG - An official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Thursday that his office has not taken on an investigation into burned Qurans left at the door of a Blacksburg mosque over the weekend. Kevin Foust, who supervises the Roanoke FBI office, said Thursday that his staff is working with the Blacksburg Police Department and U.S. Attorney John Brownlee's office "to determine whether or not we will open a federal investigation" into the incident. In the meantime, "we have offered any resources we have available" to help Blacksburg police in their investigation, Foust said. Members of the Al-Hedaya mosque,...

Burned Qurans Left at Va. Muslim Center By Associated Press June 16, 2005, 9:52 PM EDT BLACKSBURG, Va. -- A bag stuffed with burned Qurans was left in front of an Islamic center, shocking members when they arrived for prayers. The torched copies of the Muslim holy book were inside a plastic shopping bag, members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg said. They said the bag had been placed at the center's front door sometime before Saturday prayers. "It is a shame that people are so ignorant," member Idris Adjerid said. Kevin Foust, the agent in charge of the Roanoke...

Burned texts left at Islamic Center Blacksburg police have not determined if the Qurans were burned as a hate crime. By Joe Eaton 381-1665 The Roanoke Times BLACKSBURG - Members of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg were stunned when they arrived at the building for prayers Saturday afternoon. Outside the building, a plastic shopping bag filled with burned copies of the Quran sat in front of the door. Blacksburg police say they do not have any leads on who left the burned religious books, but they are investigating the incident as a possible hate crime. On Tuesday afternoon, as a...