This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/635
US embassypress release :"Calling for the death of public officials does not reflect...the merciful and compassionate religion of Islam"
May 20, 2005
MIM: Londinistan anno 2005
http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/18759971?source=PA&ct=5
For more on the Muslim Council of Britain's terrorism ties see : http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/293
This is
LONDON
20/05/05 - News and city section
Flames of hate
By Luke David, Evening Standard
Muslim protesters today called for the bombing of New York in a demonstration outside the US embassy in London.
There were threats of "another 9/11" from militants angry at reports of the desecration of the Koran by US troops in Iraq.
Some among the crowd burned an effigy of Tony Blair on a crucifix and then set fire to a Union flag and a Stars and Stripes.
Led by a man on a megaphone, they chanted, "USA watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "Kill, kill USA, kill, kill George Bush". A small detail of police watched as they shouted: "Bomb, bomb New York" and "George Bush, you will pay, with your blood, with your head."
Demonstrators in Grosvenor Square, some with their faces covered with scarves, waved placards which included the message: "Desecrate today and see another 9/11 tomorrow."
The protest was organised by groups including the Muslim Council for Britain and the Muslim Parliamentary Association of the UK. Their protest follows fury in the Islamic world over the claims in a Newsweek magazine that US soldiers at Guantanamo Bay had abused the Koran.
The magazine later withdrew the article and apologised but not before it triggered riots in Afghanistan in which 17 people died and 100 people were injured.
Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Martin Mubanga told the crowd he had seen a copy of the Koran "desecrated" during his time at Camp Delta.
He said: "This was one of the methods they used, throwing the Koran, my Koran, on the floor in my cell."
One of the protesters called for the release of radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza. He shouted: "Your so-called democracy will fall under the sword of Allah. The day of judgment is coming."
The demonstration coincided with protests across the world. On the West Bank 2,500 Palestinians streamed out of mosques shouting "Death to America". In Calcutta, India, protesters burned, spat and urinated on the US flag. And in Somalia thousands chanted anti-US slogans.
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KILL KILL USA..KILL KILL BUSH Mob burns flag at US embassy By Greig BoxA HATE mob urged terror strikes on New York and torched the US flag outside its embassy in London yesterday.
More than 300 demonstrators, led by extremist Muslim cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, chanted: "Kill, kill USA, kill kill George Bush."
Other calls included: "UK, you will pay, Zarqawi is on his way" - a reference to fugitive al-Qaeda mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
There were also shouted slogans urging terrorists to "nuke New York" and hailing Osama bin Laden.
Protesters, who included masked men in military khaki and women with children, burned a wooden cross just yards from the embassy entrance in Grosvenor Square.
Bakri told them: "Go home and be part of the global struggle, the global jihad."
The demo, also led by controversial Egyptian preacher Yassar al-Siri, was in protest against alleged desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.
US magazine Newsweek alleged American interrogators flushed a copy of the holy book down a toilet at the Cuban camp.
It withdrew the claim after a fierce attack from the White House but it has been blamed for riots in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Martin Mubanga, freed from Guantanamo in January after three years, told protesters he had seen the Koran degraded.
Mr Mubanga, of Wembley, North London, said: "They thought I was dangerous so they liked to fight me.
"This was one of the methods they used, throwing the Koran, my Koran, on the floor in my cell.
"I also witnessed a man over 60 years of age being dragged out for participating in the protest against the treatment of the Koran."
Other chants included: "USA, watch your back, Osama is coming back" and "George Bush, you will pay, with your blood, with your head".
A dozen police watched over the demo.
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http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/05/20/britain.protest/index.html
LONDON, England (CNN) -- About 300 people have taken part in a noisy protest over the alleged desecration of the Quran outside the U.S. Embassy in central London.
Their demonstration was held Friday near the steps of the embassy in Grosvenor Square, which was guarded by a small detail of police.
A British policeman said the language was offensive and unpleasant in the extreme. But police overlooked that and the fact that more than a few of the young men in the crowd covered their faces, technically a violation of British law, according to the police.
Shouting, "Down, down USA; down, down USA," the protesters called for the killing of Americans, the death of the U.S. president, the death of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the bombing of Britain, and the annihilation of the U.S. capital: "Nuke, nuke Washington; Nuke, nuke Washington! Bomb, bomb the Pentagon."
Some of the militant Islamic rhetoric smacked of incitement to commit murder, CNN's Senior International Correspondent Walter Rodgers reported. "Death, death Tony Blair; death, death Tony Blair. Death, death George Bush," the protesters chanted.
"The only language we speak today is the language of jihad," said one protester.
While Newsweek magazine has withdrawn the story it published saying American soldiers intentionally committed acts denigrating the Quran, a man who said he was a former detainee at Guantanamo said he saw the Muslim holy book defiled.
Martin Mumbanga told CNN: "The soldier picked up the Quran and threw it on the floor."
Holding their Qurans high, they called for death and mayhem, praising the destruction of New York's twin towers on September 11, 2001, and saying the White House is next.
Before they broke up, the protesters joined in meditation, and then they all prayed.
Demonstrations have taken place around the world over Newsweek's report. There is still anger in parts of the Muslim world where some people are skeptical about the magazine's retraction.
The White House has blamed the report, at least in part, for violence in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the region that left at least 15 people dead.
The White House on Tuesday said it expected Newsweek to help "repair the damage" to the U.S. image in the Muslim world caused by its report. The magazine has apologized for its story.
"Newsweek can clearly explain what happened, why they got it wrong, particularly to people in the region," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Thursday it had gathered "credible" reports about U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay disrespecting the Quran and raised the issue with the Pentagon several times.
Group spokesman Simon Schorno said the allegations were made by detainees to Red Cross representatives who visited the detention facility throughout 2002 and 2003. (Full story)
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http://www.usembassy.org.uk/ukpa0520.html
Press Release
Several dozen protesters gathered in front of the U.S. Embassy this afternoon to express their anger about the allegations of Koran desecration that were printed in Newsweek magazine last week. London news media have covered the event and requested some comment from the U.S. Embassy in response.
Newsweek has retracted its story and issued an apology. President Bush and Secretary of State Rice have gone to great lengths to reiterate that disrespect of the Holy Koran is not tolerated by the United States. Secretary Rice has stated that desecration of religious texts and objects is repugnant to our common values and anathema to the American people. U.S. military officials said investigators have not found allegations of the willful desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo to be credible.
The demonstrators chose to ignore all this, and instead used the opportunity presented by the presence of numerous TV, radio and newspaper reporters to chant praise for Osama bin Laden and call for the death of President Bush, Secretary Rice, and Secretary Rumsfeld. In response to these statements, U.S. Chargé d'Affaires, a.i., David Johnson said, "Calling for the death of public officials does not reflect the values of British or American democracy or the merciful and compassionate religion of Islam."
People can surely agree that everyone has the right to express his or her views in open societies like the U.S. and the UK. That's what freedom is all about. But today's demonstration in London, like demonstrations in other places around the world, has shown that there are people who will use any excuse to encourage violence and destruction.
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/635