India-Pakistan | ||
New violence, black flag of Jihad raised at reopened Pakistan mosque | ||
2007-07-27 | ||
The bomb struck the Muzaffar Hotel, in a downtown market area about a quarter mile from the mosque. Local television showed victims many of them bleeding or badly burned, with their clothing in tatters being carried from the wreckage to waiting ambulances. Amir Mehmood, a witness, said he saw blood, body parts, and shreds of a Punjab police uniform inside the hotel. Senior Interior Ministry official Javed Iqbal Cheema said 11 people were killed, including seven police, and 43 were wounded. The bombing came soon after police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters who had occupied the Red Mosque complex during its reopening after the raid that left more than 100 dead. The protesters denounced President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and demanded the return of a pro-Taliban cleric, Abdul Aziz, who was detained by the government during the mosque siege. The demonstrators threw stones at an armored personnel carrier and dozens of police in riot gear on a road outside the mosque. After the demonstrators disregarded calls to disperse peacefully, police fired tear gas, scattering the crowd. Earlier, security forces stood by as protesters clambered onto the roof of the mosque and daubed red paint on the walls after they forced a government-appointed cleric assigned to lead prayers to retreat. A cleric from a seminary associated with the mosque eventually led the prayers. "Musharraf is a dog! He is worse than a dog! He should resign!" students shouted. Some lingered over the ruins of a neighboring girls' seminary that was demolished by authorities this week. Militants had used the seminary to resist government forces involved in the siege. Friday's reopening was meant to help cool anger over the siege, which triggered a flare-up in militant attacks on security forces across Pakistan.
In an act of defiance to authorities' repainting of the mosque this week in pale yellow, protesters wrote "Lal Masjid" or "Red Mosque" in large Urdu script on the dome of the mosque. They also hoisted a black flag with two crossed swords meant to symbolize jihad, or holy war. The crowd shouted support for the mosque's former deputy cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who led the siege until he was shot and killed by security forces after refusing to surrender. Ghazi was the public face of a vigilante, Islamic anti-vice campaign that had challenged the government's writ in the Pakistani capital. "Ghazi, your blood will lead to a revolution," the protesters chanted. Police stood by on the street outside the mosque, but did not enter the courtyard where the demonstration was taking place. Islamabad commissioner Khalid Pervez said police forces did not want to go inside the mosque in case it led to a clash with protesters, but maintained the situation was under control. He said the reaction of Aziz's supporters was understandable and predicted things would calm down. Over mosque loudspeakers, protesters vowed to "take revenge for the blood of martyrs." In a speech at the mosque's main entrance, Liaqat Baloch, deputy leader of a coalition of hard-line religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, condemned Musharraf as a "killer" and declared there would be an Islamic revolution in Pakistan. "Maulana Abdul Aziz is still the prayer leader of the mosque. The blood of martyrs will bear fruit. This struggle will reach its destination of an Islamic revolution. Musharraf is a killer of the constitution. He's a killer of male and female students. The entire world will see him hang," Baloch said. Pakistan's Geo television showed scenes of pandemonium inside the mosque, with dozens of young men in traditional Islamic clothing and prayers caps shouting angrily and punching the air with their hands. Officials were pushed and shoved by men in the crowd. One man picked up shoes left outside the mosque door and hurled them at news crews recording the scene. Maulana Ashfaq Ahmed, a senior cleric from another mosque in the city who was assigned by the government to lead the prayers, was quickly escorted from the complex, as protesters waved angry gestures at him. Wahajat Aziz, a government worker who was among the protesters, said officials were too hasty in reopening the mosque. "They brought an imam that people had opposed in the past," he said. "This created tension in the environment. People's emotions have not cooled down yet." Security was tightened in Islamabad ahead of the mosque's reopening, with extra police taking up posts around the city and airport-style metal detectors put in place at the mosque entrance used to screen worshippers for weapons. | ||
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India-Pakistan | |
Sharia can't be enforced through suicide attacks: MMA | |
2007-07-16 | |
Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) on Sunday said that Shariah could not be enforced in the country by carrying out suicide attacks and insisted that the country needed a political struggle for Islamization. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of opposition in the National Assembly, said this while addressing a press conference along MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmad after their meeting with a delegation of Itehad Tanzeematul Madaris (ITMD).
Fazl also demanded a judicial inquiry into the Lal Masjid military operation and asked the government to make public the names of the people who had gone missing in the operation. He demanded immediate release of the imprisoned male and female students of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid and reminded the government that they had announced general amnesty for all students of Jamia Hafsa. Earlier, the ITMD sought control of Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia in its convention held in Rawalpindi. Qari Saeedur Rehman chaired the session. | |
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India-Pakistan | |
Nuggets from the Urdu Press | |
2007-01-21 | |
Milk of a goat cures all According to daily Khabrain, a car mechanic Mohammad Ramazan in Kasur is using a strange goat as a messiah to cure all the diseases in the world. He printed an ad and distributed handbills in which he asserted that he bought a goat that has two tits that give milk. He gave this milk to a sick girl and she recovered immediately. A blind woman massaged her eyes with that milk and she gained her eyesight. He said this milk is the miracle of God. After this ad, a lot of sick people are coming to his house and he is collecting nazrana from these patients. He said he would build a mosque with the money.
According to daily Khabrain, the minister for religious affairs Amir Liaqat Ali said that NWFP maulanas want to divide the nation. He said, the government of NWFP doesnt like to see Maulana Muneeb ur Rehman as chairman of Central Ruet-e-Hilal committee. He said that experts of astonomy were consulted during the reign of righteous Caliphs and all the provincial and zonal Ruet-e-Hilal committees formed by NWFP government are illegal. He said Eid cant be celebrated following Saudi Arabia. He said all the sects are represented in central Ruet-e-Hilal committee while the zonal Ruet-e-Hilal committee of NWFP doesnt have ahle tashe or ahle hadith ulema. Jamaat members getting salaries from NA As reported in daily Khabrian, the leader of Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, and other 26 members of Jamaat Islami, havent informed the assembly secretariat about their decision of not taking their salaries. Only one member of Jamaat Islami. Mohammad Hussain Mehanti has informed the secretariat and the assembly secretary didnt transfer his salary into his account. The salary of Qazi Hussain Ahmad and one lac rupees of privileges have been transferred to Al Khidmat foundation. Other members who didnt inform the secretariat include Liaqat Baloch, Farid Ahmad Paracha, Hanif Aslam, Raheela Samia Qazi, Hafiz Suleman Butt, Abdul Akbar Chitrali and others. Man raped by two Kuwaiti women According to daily Nawa-i-Waqt, a higher court in Kuwait sentenced two women to seven years in prison for raping and beating a man. According to a newspaper, Alrai, the man, was beaten up and injected with drugs for potency. He presented his medical certificates that proved the sexual assault. Earlier the lower court awarded 15 years imprisonment to both the women. Fatwa to kill female staff of NGOs According to daily Jang, the chairperson of human rights commission Asma Jehangir, wrote a letter to interior minister Aftab Sher Pao in which she pointed to a fatwa issued by Mufti Khalid Shah of Dara Adam Khel to kill the women associated with NGOs and United Nation. International Red Cross and human rights organizations are termed as agents of Jews and West. Mufti Khalid asked the Muslim Umma to kill women worker of NGOs and called it a sacred duty of Muslim. He also urged Muslim to use heavy guns, destroy their houses, attack their cars and loot their homes. She also wrote that one maulana issued a fatwa in Hazara and warned all female NGO staff to leave the area. Asma Jehangir said these mullahs write their sect, name and address and paste their fatwa on the walls. NWFP government registered cases against them but is not taking any action against them. There were three women NGO workers killed during the year 2006. Revenge of a Cobra According to daily Express, a newly married couple died of snake bite. Hamad Butt and his wife Salma saw a couple of cobra snakes on the banks of Chenab. Hamad killed the female snake with a stone and the male snake ran away. After a while, when they were busy talking to each other, the same snake appeared before them and bit them. The couple died in a few hours. Our emotions are hurt again As reported in daily Express, The Cartoon Network has created a cartoon series with the character of the Prophet Moses to instigate the emotions of Muslims. The cartoon series that would destroy the religious thinking of children and would start from Sunday. The satanic plan by cartoon network has hurt the emotions of Muslims in Pakistan. People have started calling newspapers and said that cartoon of the prophet Moses are blasphemous. Some people asked the cable operators not to show cartoon network and asked the parents to watch the kids and not allow them to watch the channel. UN resolutions are useless! As reported in daily Express, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan who advocates Kashmir become a part of Pakistan, has said the United Nations resolutions have become redundant. He said Pakistan can leave the UN resolutions as a strategy when Bharat is stuck on Attot ang rhetoric and we are stuck with UN resolutions. He said we cant wait for another 50 years for a referendum for the right of self determination. He said the purpose of UN resolutions is to solve the Kashmir issue. Womens bill will destroy households As reported in daily Nawa-i-Waqt, a wife named Nasim hit her husband with a heavy stick and opened a wound in his head when he stopped her from going to bazaar. The injured husband, Razzaq, was brought to a hospital where he lamented that Womens Protection Bill is responsible for his wounds. He said now a lot of households would be destroyed because of this bill. Old habits die hard According to daily Khabrain, the provincial minister for religious affairs, Maulana Amanaullah Haqqani, has said the celebration of Eid on two days is an old issue and cant be solved in a few days. He said there is no example of Central Ruet-e-Hilal committee during the reign of the righteous Caliphs. If there was such a practice then they should inform us. Mother of three marries a Pakistani boy As reported in daily Express, the American lady Domana Mary Petit, who married a Pakistani boy Amir Khan after their love affair on the internet, was already married and had three children from her first husband. She said she has got a divorce from her first husband. She came to Pakistan and married Amir Khan with the consent of his parents. She submitted her marriage certificate and her statement in a civil court. | |
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India-Pakistan | |
MMA votes to open muttawa dept? | |
2006-11-13 | |
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Lawmakers from an Islamic coalition ruling Pakistan's deeply conservative northwest on Monday approved a law to set up a Taliban-style department to suppress The province's governor must sign the law, and it was not immediately clear when the legal procedure would be completed. The assembly passed the same bill last year despite the opposition of the central government. But the provincial governor had refused to sign it into law, objecting that it aimed to set up a parallel police system. The Supreme Court subsequently proposed amendments, and on Monday provincial Law Minister Malik Zafar Azam reintroduced the amended bill for debate. Sixty-six members from the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal or United Action Forum coalition ruling the North West Frontier Province voted for the Hisbah, or Accountability Law, while about 30 opposition members abstained. "Dictatorship by clerics is not acceptable," chanted female opposition lawmaker Begum Nighat Yasmin Aurakzai, denouncing the measure. Provincial Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani hailed the new law. "We had promised an Islamic system to the nation and approval of the Hisbah Bill is an important step in that direction," Durrani said in the assembly after the bill was passed. Lawmakers from his ruling alliance chanted, "God is great." The proposed accountability department recalls the feared Vice and Virtue police of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, which barred women and girls from school and work, and banned nearly all forms of entertainment under its strict interpretation of Islamic laws. The Taliban police would beat women if they ventured out of their homes uncovered and publicly punished men for not offering prayers or growing beards. The cleric leading the proposed department in Pakistan would be supervised by a six-member council comprising two other clerics, two lawyers and two government officials. The hard-line Islamic coalition that rules the province gained power in parliamentary elections in 2002 mainly on a platform of opposition to the U.S.-led war that toppled the Taliban. While life in the conservative province hasn't changed markedly under the coalition's rule, its government has taken some measures toward implementing Islamic law. It has banned music on public buses, prohibited male doctors from treating female patients, and restricted men from watching or coaching female athletes acts it deems against Islam. An opposition lawmaker rejected the new law, saying it promoted the draconian stance of the Taliban regime. "This bill will encourage steps for the Talibanization of the province," said Mushtaq Ahmed Ghani, a lawmaker from the Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.
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India-Pakistan | |
Fundos rally against Musharraf | |
2006-09-08 | |
More than 5,000 supporters of an Islamic religious alliance rallied near the Pakistani capital, demanding President Gen Pervez Musharraf to step down. Chanting "Death to Musharraf, death to America," the supporters of the coalition of six hardline groups gathered on Wednesday in a public park in Rawalpindi, a city adjacent to the capital, Islamabad.
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India-Pakistan |
Religious leader, three killed in Karachi explosion |
2006-07-15 |
KARACHI - A Pakistani Shiite religious leader and three others were killed in a suicide bomb attack in the port city of Karachi. Allama Hassan Turrabi, his nephew and two police guards were taken to hospital after sustaining serious injuries in the attack. However, Turrabi and his nephew later died of their injuries, regional Home Minister Rauf Siddiqui confirmed. Earlier, Karachis chief of police, Niaz Siddiqui, told reporters a suicide bomber, who had strapped explosives to his body, blew himself up as Turrabi arrived at his house in Abbas. A child was also killed in the attack. Siddiqui said that the attackers head and both legs were lying at the scene of the blast, adding, that police had found a hand grenade, which had not detonated. The attacker is believed to have carried the grenade, but had been unable to hurl it over Turrabis vehicle, the official added. Turrabi was the leader of the six-party Islamic opposition alliance, Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). Hundreds of people gathered outside the hospital chanting anti- government slogans. Turrabis body was being transferred to a Shiite mosque in Karachi. |
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India-Pakistan | |||
Prominent Pakistani Cleric Killed by Bomb | |||
2006-07-14 | |||
KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- A suicide car bomber killed a prominent Shiite Muslim cleric and one of his relatives in this southern Pakistan city on Friday, police said. Allama Hassan Turabi had narrowly escaped an attempt on his life in April, and his killing will raise sectarian tensions in Karachi, which has often been the site of clashes between rival Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Turabi was the leader of a Shiite party, Islami Tehreek Pakistan. He also was chief of the southern province of Sindh for Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal or United Action Forum, a hard-line opposition religious coalition. One of Turabi's guards also was seriously hurt in the blast that shook downtown Karachi, said Manzoor Mughal, a senior police investigator. The attacker was also killed, he said. Turabi died of his injuries at Patel Hospital, Mughal said. Dr. Abdul Rashid at the private hospital confirmed the cleric's death.
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India-Pakistan | |
MMA re-organisation at grass roots level | |
2006-06-11 | |
The participants agreed to complete the organizational structure of six parties' religious alliance till June 15 so that masses contact campaign could be launched as part of preparations for the forthcoming general elections in 2007. They expressed the anger and concern over obscenity and lawlessness, asking the local police to take stern action against the people involved in playing music loudly in vehicles and displaying vulgar film posters outside the video shops. | |
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Europe | ||
'Suicide Note' Handed To Foreign Office | ||
2006-05-09 | ||
Islamabad, 9 May (AKI/DAWN) - Germany on Monday shared with Pakistan the alleged suicide note of Amir Cheema, who was found dead in a Berlin prison while he faced a trial for allegedly trying to attack the editor of a German publication which published the cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed. The move came a day before a team of the Pakistan Federal Investigation Agency was scheduled to leave for Berlin to investigate the circumstances under which the 28-year-old student had died. Sources in the German embassy told the Pakistani daily Dawn that the suicide note had been handed over to the Pakistani Foreign Office. They claimed that the note written in Urdu showed that that Cheema had committed suicide.
Cheema's family in Rawalpindi has claimed that he had been tortured to death by German authorities. On Friday, Pakistan's state run APP news service, reported that three opposition lawmakers from Pakistan's six-party religious alliance Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) introduced a motion in the national assembly, asking for a debate on the death of Cheema in his Berlin cell. They said the student had been tortured to death. The assembly speaker, Chaudhry Ameer Hussain, allowed the motion to be debated at an unspecified date. | ||
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Southeast Asia |
Mob Attack On Jakarta Embassy Repelled; Pakis Seal Islamabad |
2006-02-20 |
Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy yesterday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured. Meanwhile, Pakistani security forces sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a mass demonstration, where they fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States. Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other publications in Europe and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world. Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church yesterday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Koran, Islam's holy book. A day earlier, Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 persons. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons in the past three weeks. In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet." Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and they smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes. The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery." A protest organizer said the West, in particular the United States, is attacking Islam. "They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name. Reuters news agency said the protesters were angered over the depiction of Muhammad in a frieze that adorns the facade of the U.S. Supreme Court. In Pakistan, where protests last week left five persons dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal -- or United Action Forum. Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five persons. Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great" and "Any friend of America is a traitor." |
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India-Pakistan | ||
Pakistani Forces Seek to Quell Protests | ||
2006-02-19 | ||
Pakistani security forces arrested hundreds of Islamic hard-liners, virtually sealed off the capital and used gunfire and tear gas Sunday to quell protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Elsewhere in the Muslim world on Sunday, demonstrators with wooden staves and stones tried unsuccessfully to storm the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, while tens of thousands rallied in the Turkish city of Istanbul and complained about negative Western perceptions of Islam. Troops patrolled the deserted streets of the northern Nigerian town of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims attacked Christians and burned churches Saturday, killing at least 15 people during a protest over the cartoons. Most of the victims were beaten to death by rioters. In Saudi Arabia, newspapers ran full-page apologies by Jyllands-Posten, the Danish newspaper that first ran the caricatures in September. The newspaper's Web site said businesses placed the ad on their own initiative, using an apology issued by the newspaper late last month. It did not identify the companies or say if they were Danish. Boycotts of Danish products throughout the Muslim world have taken a heavy toll on Denmark's exporters, especially those selling Denmark's famed dairy products. The cartoons, which have been reprinted by other Western publications, have outraged Muslims. But protests over the past three weeks have grown into a broader anger against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular. Demonstrations have turned increasingly violent and claimed at least 45 lives worldwide, including 11 in Afghanistan during a three-day span two weeks ago and 10 on Friday in the Libyan coastal city of Benghazi. The Libyan riot outside the Italian consulate apparently was sparked by a right-wing Italian Cabinet minister who wore a T-shirt with a caricature of Muhammad. On Sunday, thousands of police and paramilitary troops manned armored personnel carriers and sandbag bunkers in and around Islamabad to block a planned rally organized by a coalition of hardline Islamic parties that sympathizes with the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan and is fiercely anti-American. As roadblocks went up around the capital, authorities declared they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people. Maulana Fazlur Rahman, an opposition leader who denounced the government ban as unconstitutional, was allowed to stage a small rally with eight other opposition lawmakers and a few supporters. They chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor." But police fired tear gas and guns to chase off hundreds of stone-throwing protesters who tried to join the rally and then enter an enclave where most foreign embassies are. The three-hour clash left the street littered with rocks and spent tear gas shells. An Associated Press reporter saw two injured police, one bleeding from his head, and several injured protesters. Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said police used tear gas, but denied they fired guns. The private Geo TV network said officers fired rubber bullets. Qazi Hussain Ahmad, a top leader of the hardline Islamic coalition, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal (United Action Forum), was confined to his Lahore residence and others were detained or told to stay at home, police said. "These people could create problems of law and order," said Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmed, chief investigator of the Lahore police. In Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, police said 15,000 coalition supporters, most wearing white shrouds of mourning splashed with red paint to symbolize their willingness to die defending the prophet's honor, rallied peacefully. Twelve-year-old Amar Ahmed joined the protest, carrying a sign reading, "O Allah, give me courage to kill the blasphemer." Hundreds of Muslims burned a church in the southern city of Sukkur. No worshippers were inside at the time, but one person was hurt afterward when police fired tear gas. Local police chief Akbar Arian said the riot was not sparked by the cartoons but by allegations that a local Christian had burned pages of Islam's holy book, the Quran another sign of the heightened sectarian tensions in this overwhelmingly Muslim nation. In Indonesia, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. Embassy in central Jakarta behind a banner that read, "We are ready to attack the enemies of the prophet." Brandishing wooden staves and lobbing stones, they tried to storm the gates. They also set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush, and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes. The U.S. Embassy condemned the attack as "thuggery." In Istanbul, tens of thousands joined a protest organized by the Islamic Felicity Party, whose leaders shouted over loudspeakers that the crowd symbolized the anger of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims and urged them to "resist oppression." Protesters chanted slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States. Ethem Erkovan, a 47-year-old participant who held a banner in one hand and his daughter in the other, accused Western nations of maligning Islam. "They are the ones who are trying to depict the expanding Islamic community as terrorists, though all we want is peace," he said.
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Southeast Asia | |
Muslims Assault U.S. Embassy in Indonesia | |
2006-02-19 | |
Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured. Pakistani security forces, meanwhile, sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a planned mass demonstration and fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States. Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other European publications and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world, growing into mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular. Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book. That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago. In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet." Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes. The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery." A protest organizer said the West, and particularly the United States, is attacking Islam. "They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name.
In Pakistan, where protests last week left five people dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal - United Action Forum. Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people to prevent the demonstration. Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor." But when about 100 other protesters tried to reach the square, officers fired tear gas and at least one gunshot to chase them off. More gunshots were heard later in the city, but it wasn't clear who fired them. At least two policemen were injured, one bleeding from the head. Several demonstrators also were hurt. A crowd of 700 people, some throwing stones at police, tried to march toward Islamabad's heavily guarded diplomatic enclave about 1.3 miles from the square but with blocked by troops in armored personnel carriers. Police also blocked about 1,500 protesters from reaching Islamabad from the city of Peshawar by putting shipping containers and sandbags on a bridge along a highway leading to the capital, said Mohammed Iqbal, a key member of the religious alliance. Elsewhere in Pakistan, about 600 people staged a protest in Chaman, a town near the Afghan border, burning Danish flags and an effigy of the Danish prime minister. Such protests prompted Denmark on Sunday to temporarily recall its ambassador to Pakistan, Bent Wigotski, because it was impossible for him "to perform his job duties during the present circumstances," the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement. | |
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