This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/613
Karzai defends Islam : Will US punishing of Muslim Koran toilet saboteur detainee lead to martyrdom and more mayhem ?
May 15, 2005
Devout Muslims kneeling in front of a rifle and a Koran
"...Afghan President Hamid Karzai has expressed displeasure at the way the US magazine Newsweek handled a story on alleged desecration of the Koran in the Guantanamo detention centre, his spokesman Javed Ludin said today.
'We express in the strongest terms our disapproval of Newsweek's approach to reporting which allowed them to run the story without proper examination beforehand,' Ludin said in a statement.
'We would like to emphasise the need for a professional and sensitive approach to journalism particularly with regards to reporting on potentially sensitive issues,'..." http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/05/16/afx2030283.html
MIM: With 'allies' like Karzai who needs radical Islamists? Karzai has decided to show where his loyalties lie and knows that the only way he can save his own skin is to demand that the U.S. punish the 'culprit' who was reported as having 'desecrated' the Koran. Since the reports at Gitmo show that a Muslim was caught ripping out pages of his Koran to stuff down a toilet the demands that the US punish him puts them in a double bind, since if 'infidels' punish the Muslim culprit the Islamic world will be outraged, and explode into more violence, so they are literally 'damned if they do, and damned if they don't'. After admitting to the world that his own police force was no match for frenzied Muslim protesters, Karzai has reprimanded his infidel benefactors and protecters for their 'heavy handed patrolling', and demanded that the US turn over Afghan Gitmo prisoners to the incapable hands of the Afghan police and military.
Karzai wants defiling of Koran punished
By Sayed Salahuddin, Reuters | May 15, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan urged the United States yesterday to prosecute and punish anyone found guilt of desecrating the Koran.
Protests against the United States flared for a fifth day in Afghanistan. Sixteen Afghans have been killed, and more than 100 have been hurt since Wednesday, in the worst anti-US protests across Afghanistan since US forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.
Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition that investigators probing abuses at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
"If proven that this happened, then we will strongly ask the American government to put on trial and punish whoever is the culprit," Karzai said during a press conference.
The United States has tried to calm Muslim outrage over the incident, saying that disrespect for the Koran was abhorrent and would not be tolerated and that military authorities were investigating the allegation.
The 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference said the report had enraged hundreds of millions of Muslims and would "provide fanatics and extremists with excuses to . . . justify their acts of violence and terrorism."
The Arab League, based in Cairo, also issued a statement saying that if the allegations pan out, Washington should apologize to Muslims. Yemen's government and thousands of university students yesterday added their voices to the Muslim world's anger.
The protesters in Afghanistan have also been venting their anger against Karzai, attacking and torching government offices and police stations, as well as UN and aid group offices.
Protests erupted in several parts of the country again yesterday, but apart from some stone-throwing, there was no violence, officials said.
Karzai said foreign hands were behind the disturbances, but did not identify them. Most of Afghanistan's neighbors have at one time or another meddled in its affairs. Karzai has called for close defense ties with the United States to prevent such interference.
This week's violence was an attack on the country, and it will fight the threat as it fought Soviet occupiers in the 1980s, Karzai said.
"The three days of violent protests were like a warning that dragons are still at our throat and [that] the enemies of this soil are still active," he said.
Protesters were out yesterday in the southern town of Spin Boldak, on the border with Pakistan; in neighboring Zabul Province; in Farah Province in the west; and in Badghis Province in the northwest, officials said.
School students threw stones at an aid agency office in Badghis, but no one was hurt, residents said.
The protests began Tuesday in the conservative eastern city of Jalalabad. Violence erupted on Wednesday when four protesters were killed. Clashes occurred in different places Thursday and Friday.
Afghan analysts have said the protests were prompted specifically by the report of Koran desecration, not by general hatred of the United States, but there is growing resentment of US troops, especially in ethnic Pashtun areas of the south and east, where US troops mainly operate.
Karzai said US troops had made mistakes, apparently referring to allegations of heavy-handed patrolling.
The United States commands a force in Afghanistan of about 18,300, most of them American. US and other foreign troops have not been involved in policing the protests.
Karzai also said he would ask US forces to hand over all Afghan prisoners. The United States is holding more than 500 prisoners from its war on terrorism at the Guantanamo Bay naval base on Cuba, and is also believed to be holding several hundred Afghans in Afghanistan. 
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/613