Our attempts to win hearts and minds ain't working. I am attempting to update this constantly: look below the fold for new information from around the world.
The bare details are these:
Newsweek reported that one of our stellar interrogation techniques was to flush the Koran down the toilet in front of Muslim detainees at Gitmo. Now that the word is out, protests are taking place in Muslim cities around the world. In a way, it doesn't matter if the rumours are true or not. Our behaviour at Abu Ghraib and Gitmo has been so abysmal that at this point, the Muslim world will believe we are capable of anything.
From the BBC:
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasurihad this to say:
"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.
By the way, I was horrified to see the response to this on FreeRepublic. The comments there indicated that this was a good thing. Apparently, Freepers, in an effort to get more of our soldiers killed, think antagonizing people is a damn good idea.
Try to imagine what would have happened if it had come to light that Muslim interrogators had burned Bibles in front of captured American soldiers. Given the climate in this country, my guess is that Muslim-Americans would have been dragged from their homes and lynched.
Fresh violence in Afghanistan over Koran desecration allegations
May 14, 2005 - 12:33AM
Protests against the alleged desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay have spread across the Muslim world, with three Afghans dying in fresh violence and hardliners rallying in Pakistan and Indonesia.
The worst anti-US demonstrations since the fall of the Taliban in 2001 entered a fourth day in Afghanistan on Friday, spreading to new cities across the conservative nation where American troops maintain a heavy presence.
More here Guardian
More:
Daily Scotsman
From Bangladesh
Insulting the Koran and Islam’s Prophet Mohammed is regarded as blasphemy and punishable by death in Pakistan.
In an interview last week with the BBC’s Haroon Rashid, Abdul Rahim Muslim Dost, an Afghan prisoner recently released from the Cuban detention centre, said a number of Arab prisoners had still not spoken to their investigators after three years to protest at the desecration of the Koran by guards.
From The Jerusalem Post
Protest by Hamas:
Shouting, "protect our holy book," about 1,500 protesters, some carrying green banners symbolizing Hamas, marched through the streets of the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. Some demonstrators burnt Israeli and US flags.
"Muslims, your book was defiled by the aggressors," one organizer said over a loudspeaker attached to a car. "It is a disgrace to all Muslims who are watching silently.
From India
Proving that our timing is impeccable:
The escalation in anti-US and anti-Karzai anger, which is being exploited by the Taliban, Gulbuddin Heckmatyar's Hizb-e-Islami and the Pakistani jihadi organisations allied with the Al Qaeda in the International Islamic Front (IIF), has come at a time when the Taliban and the Hizb-e-Islami have launched their spring offensive in southern and eastern Afghanistan, coinciding with the 13th anniversary of the overthrow of the pro-Moscow Najibullah government by the Afghan Mujahideen in April,1992.
From Arabic News
Statement from World Islamic People's Leadership:
While, it condemns such irresponsible attitude, that has no relation to combating terrorism, WIPL warns against the serious repercussions of such immoral acts, and against the fertile ground that it provides for growing the phenomena of extremism and violence, WIPL joins all voices of peace and freedom advocates in the world, who condemned this behaviour, asking the US administration to conduct an immediate investigation into such deliberate insult to Muslims, offer official apologies and present those responsible to justice.