 Muslim protesters burned, spit and urinated on a U.S. flag Friday in eastern India, accusing Americans of desecrating Islam's holy book as anger persisted despite the retraction of a magazine report that a Quran was flushed down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay.
| That's right. Answer an alleged desecration with an actual desecration... |
U.S. officials have said they found nothing to substantiate the Newsweek report that interrogators at the prison camp in Cuba flushed a copy of the Quran down the toilet to unnerve an inmate. But given frequent reports of mistreatment at the camp from released detainees, some Muslims remained convinced the desecration happened and U.S. officials pressured the magazine to deny the story.
| "Of course it happened! It had to have happened! Why would they tell us it happened if it didn't? It's not like we're a bunch of ignorant rubes who'll riot over... ummm... anything. Any time. Any place. |
In London, a former prisoner at Guantanamo told a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy that guards at the camp had mistreated his Quran. "This was one of the methods they used, throwing the Quran, my Quran, on the floor in my cell. This was in the first month at Camp Delta but it is not something that stopped, rather continued and increased," said Martin Mubanga, who was released from the prison in January. "It's a shame we have had to wait for a magazine to publish and then retract a story concerning the treatment of the Quran," Mubanga said.
| "Oh why, why didn't you believe me and riot six months ago?" |
He spoke as about 200 protesters gathered outside the embassy, chanting "kill, kill George Bush" and other anti-American slogans. Many in the crowd bravely covered their faces with scarves. A man with a megaphone led chants including "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "bomb, bomb New York."
| Thank you. We'll keep that in mind. And maybe you should keep that statement in mind next time you feel like we're being too hard on the poor, defenseless Moose limbs... |
Thousands also took to the streets in Somalia's capital of Mogadishu and the Palestinian territories, but the demonstrations were nothing on the scale of rioting in Afghanistan last week in which 15 people died and protesters threw rocks at police.
| Seems like people in Mogadishu and Paleostine would have other things to worry about, like one state being failed and the other being stillborn, but maybe that's just me... |
Riot police watched but did not stop some 500 protesters who shouted slogans against the United States and forced a traffic shutdown in the heart of the eastern Indian city of Calcutta. The protest began at a mosque after Friday afternoon prayers conducted by the "imam" or chief priest, who then led demonstrators to the road. "Death to America!" they cried as men spat on the flag. They asked a boy in the crowd to urinate on it, and hit the flag with shoes and leather slippers. The 20-minute protest ended with the burning of two American flags.
| And a wonderful time was had by all. |
In the West Bank city of Nablus, some 2,500 Palestinian Hamas militants streamed out of mosques Friday chanting, "Death to America, death to Israel." Muslim preacher Maher Haraz demanded that "America apologize to all Muslims worldwide, and punish those that trampled on the Quran and stuffed it in the toilet."
| After you've killed the people who burnt or pissed on our flag. |
"There will be a Muslim uprising in the world, an uprising of the Quran," Haraz declared.
| As opposed to what we have now? |
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