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The entire Muslim world is up in arms over a May 9
Newsweek story claiming US interrogators at America's main gulag had placed
the Quran on toilets.
There
are violent street demonstrations in Afghanistan,
Egypt and Yemen,
while Muslim leaders, including Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Malaysian Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi have demanded that the alleged perpetrators be
held to account.
Saudi Arabia was
the first Arab country to register its indignation with the White House soon
followed by Pakistan, Yemen
and the 22-nation Arab League.
United
States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had promised to seriously
investigate the matter when, lo and behold, Newsweek's editor has popped his
head above the parapet to suggest his magazine may have got it wrong.
Apparently,
a Pentagon spokesman told the publication that the military has found no
evidence that such desecration ever took place. So that's all right then.
Everybody can go home and forget about it.
But
before Rice goes back to her piano practice between photo-ops in Iraq, her
boss to his golf and tree-sawing, and Dick Cheney to his dilemma over who
next to invade, there is just one minor problem.
There
have been several previous reports on similar lines, mostly ignored by the
mainstream media.
Tarek
Dergoul, one of the British detainees released from Guantanamo, told Amnesty International:
"One of the interrogators brought a cup holder for four cups with two
coffees in the cup holder. He then deliberately placed the Quran on top of
the coffee.
"He
put his folder on the desk and then grabbed the Quran with his feet upon the
table and read it like he was reading a magazine. He made jokes about the
Quran…"
A Human
Rights Watch report states: "Detainees also complained about
interference with their ability to pray and the lack of respect given to their
religion. For example, the British detainees complained that when the Qurans
were provided, the guards 'would kick the Quran, throw it into the toilet and
generally disrespect it'."
A
Newsmax report on prisoners released from Camp Delta
quotes Mohammad Al Musawi as complaining of being humiliated by guards.
"They
forced me to take all my clothes off, and female prison guards were
whispering and laughing at me," he said, adding "late at night,
drunken female soldiers used to come and trample on the Quran…"
A
January 19, 2005 Associated Press story written by Sam Hananel quotes lawyers
as describing Kuwaiti detainees as emaciated and abused.
One of
the men's lawyers Kristine Huskey said a Muslim detainee had been made to
watch a guard throw a Quran in the toilet.
The
Daily Mirror recounted the story of another released British detainee Jamal
Al Harith in an article titled: "My hell in Camp X-Ray"
dated March 12, 2004 thus: "One unit used force-feeding to end a hunger
strike by 70 per cent of the 600 inmates. The strike started after a guard
deliberately kicked a copy of the Quran."
So
whereas Newsweek may be flagellating itself and publishing a litany of mea
culpas, what about Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Newsmax, the
Associated Press and the Daily Mirror? Are their accounts wrong too?
Indeed,
Newsweek's U-turn is nothing less than an insult to our intelligence. I would
go as far as to say it has probably been leant on by the powers that be in an
attempt to avert a global religious and political divide. If so, that isn't a
bad thing you might conclude.
There
has been enough hatred, enough bitterness and enough deaths. But coming out
with transparent cop-outs isn't the right way of repairing wrongs.
Put
simply, the United States
must begin to hold its soldiers, intelligent agents and mercenaries (sorry,
contractors) publicly accountable, not to mention the Pentagon suit mob and
its attorney-general embroiled in a torture memo controversy.
Horrendous abuse
The
world reeled at the horrendous abuse meted out to detainees at Abu Ghraib but
what happened? A few ignorant, sadistic lowlifes were made to take the fall
leaving their superiors unblemished.
An
unarmed wounded Iraqi insurgent is shot in cold blood in a Fallujah mosque,
captured on film by an embedded cameraman, but the perpetrator gets away with
it. He followed rules of engagement, they said.
An
Italian intelligence officer, Nicola Calipari, is shot dead at a checkpoint
by US soldiers, his precious cargo, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, wounded, yet,
according to the Pentagon, their guys did nothing wrong.
According
to Phil Shiner of Public Interest Lawyers, acting for more than 40 victims of
torture and unlawful killings by British forces in Iraq, the British government is
being similarly evasive.
Shiner
claims that in both Britain
and the United States
"a state of collective national denial and therefore relative silence
persists. Those responsible have not been charged for war crimes murder,
torture and outrages upon personal dignity or otherwise held
accountable".
If the United States
is serious about its Muslim World Outreach programme it must take a long,
hard look at those who believe they are doing its bidding and hold them
accountable.
A war
on terror cannot be fought with terror. If America wants respect and
cooperation from the Muslim world then it must extend the same courtesies.
Insulting
Islam and defacing the Quran will merely serve to inflame the fires of
Islamic fundamentalism and anti-Americanism on streets from Casablanca
to Kabul.
And
rather than deny such incidents have occurred, the Bush administration would
do well to investigate, severely punish the offenders and offer its sincere
apologies to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims.
There
was recently a televised debate in Qatar as to whether the "war
on terror" was a euphemism for a war on Islam. An audience vote showed
an almost down the middle split with the no's having the slight edge.
"I
don't think it is but if the bigoted and irreligious within the United States
army's ranks are allowed to get away with using the Quran as a tool for
psychological torture, then the day will inevitably come when there will be a
seismic shift in the perceptions of moderate Muslims.
It is
up to the Bush administration to ensure that day never comes. For if it does,
the prediction of Arab League chief Amr Mousa that the gates of hell will
open may loom ever larger.
Politically,
the Muslim world is currently divided but those who attack Islam and its holy
book will inadvertently create a united force with which to be reckoned.
Linda
S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East
affairs. She can be contacted at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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