Thousands protest against U.S. over Koran incident
Thousands protest against U.S. over Koran incident
Agencies, Jakarta
Thousands of Muslim activists staged a rally outside the United States Embassy in Jakarta on Sunday, condemning the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book Koran by interrogators at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Despite the U.S.-based Newsweek magazine's retraction of its report and apology, it failed to mollify outraged Muslim activists in Indonesia.
Witnesses estimated that around 10,000 activists from dozens of Muslim groups, including hard-line organizations, including the Islam Defender Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), as well as several Islamic-based political parties, demonstrated outside the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.
Police estimated the crowd at 7,000 protesters.
It was the biggest anti-U.S. protest in Indonesia in recent months.
The protesters unfurled banners denouncing what they called U.S. arrogance. One read: "Chase U.S. imperialism out of Muslim countries."
Newsweek said in its initial report two weeks ago that U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo detention center desecrated the Koran by placing a copy of it into a toilet.
On May 16, the magazine 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 U.S. prison.
Wearing mostly white, with the women veiled, the protesters carried placards reading: "Rid Islamic countries of U.S. imperialism" and "The desecration at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib cannot be tolerated."
The protesters demanded that President George W. Bush stop insulting Muslims and immediately close down the Guantanamo detention center as well as other prisons, including Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
They also called on the United States to immediately pull out from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.
The demonstrators warned that Muslims worldwide would take revenge for what U.S. servicemen had done.
"We will continue to press the U.S. government to stop desecrating the Holy Koran and Muslims," said Syaifullah of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, a hard-line group.
"Destroy America and its allies! Kill those who desecrate Islam!" Muhammad Iqbal alias Abu Jibril, from the MMI, screamed at the protesters through a public address system.
Jibril, a 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 offense.
He represented MMI at the rally, which is an umbrella organization seeking Islamic sharia law. It is headed by Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who was sentenced in March to 30 months jail for his involvement in a criminal conspiracy that led to the Bali bombings.
Judges cleared Ba'asyir of more serious charges of planning terrorist attacks.
A number of Indonesian Muslim leaders have previously condemned the reported Guantanamo incident, arguing that any such desecration would be intolerable and abominable.
Muslims around the world have demonstrated in recent days against alleged abuse of the Muslim holy book. The unrest left at least 14 people dead in Afghanistan.