They will have the US at war with Islam if they have to drag it into such a war kicking and screaming. From AP, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
CALCUTTA, India – 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.
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….
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.
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.
Muslims are the largest minority in predominantly Hindu India, forming more than 12 percent of the 1 billion-plus population.
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.”
“There will be a Muslim uprising in the world, an uprising of the Quran,” Haraz declared….
The Bush administration has called on Newsweek to explain how it got the story wrong and to report on U.S. military practices intended to ensure the Quran is handled with respect. The State Department told its embassies to spread the word abroad that America respects all religious faiths.
Muslims worldwide are sure to believe that.