Protests worldwide lift Quran, blast U.S.

CAIRO, Egypt -- Muslims spat on the American flag, threw tomatoes at a picture of President Bush and burned the U.S. Constitution in protests Friday from Iraq to Indonesia over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Waving copies of the Quran, many of the thousands of demonstrators across the Middle East and Asia chanted anti-American slogans and demanded an apology from the United States, as well as punishment for those who treated the book with disrespect at the U.S. lockup.

U.S. investigators admitted Thursday there was mishandling of the Quran but contend it was mostly inadvertent and deny that one had been put in a toilet. Friday's protests were organized before the officials' comments in Washington.

Many Muslims were outraged earlier this month when Newsweek reported interrogators at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a Quran down the toilet to get inmates to talk. The story -- later retracted -- sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan.

"The defilement of our holy book is outrageous because we consider it to be the word of God," said Asiya Andrabi, head of the Daughters of the Community and one of about 50 women clad in black Islamic veils who marched through Srinagar, India.

Some marchers burned symbolic copies of the U.S. Constitution and the American flag, and school and offices were closed for the demonstration in Srinagar. Later, police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of men who gathered outside a mosque.

Police watched many of the rallies, which were mostly peaceful and organized by Islamic groups around the world shortly after the Newsweek report came out.

In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, some 12,000 Muslims and followers of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood filled a three-story building and spilled onto surrounding streets, which were sealed off by riot and street police.

Through loudspeakers, speakers called on the government and Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, grand imam of Al-Azhar Mosque, the Sunni Muslim world's most prestigious seat of learning, to demand an American apology.

"Oh arrogant America, the Quran is our constitution," read some banners. Police said 12 protest organizers were arrested.

Protest by lawyers

A demonstration in downtown Cairo drew about 1,000 people, mostly lawyers, who were surrounded by twice as many riot police.

In the Lebanese capital, Beirut, about 1,000 demonstrators burned American and Israel flags and held black banners with the inscription, "No God But God, Muhammad is God's Messenger."

One speaker shouted, "There are matters that cannot be straightened out unless heads roll!"

The crowd responded: "We will cut off the feet that desecrated the Quran!"

The protests also spread to Sudan, where thousands gathered outside the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum and called for a serious investigation into all violations against Muslims held in Guantanamo.

"Oh Bush, don't touch the Quran! It is very dangerous," the protesters yelled, demanding the closure of the embassy, which was ringed by hundreds of riot police.

Nearly 1,000 people demonstrated in the predominantly Shiite southern Iraqi city of Basra to protest the alleged desecrations.

Two straw dolls -- of Bush and a rabbi -- were beaten with shoes and slippers, and American, British and Israeli flags were burned.

More than 15,000 people marched in Pakistan, including the cities of Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta and Lahore.

The protest in the capital of Islamabad began in a tense atmosphere just hours after a bomb at a Muslim shrine killed at least 20 people.

"It's time for Muslims to unite," Qazi Hussain Ahmed, head of a religious alliance that organized many of the rallies, told a crowd of more than 5,000 in Islamabad, watched by heavy security. "We have been given a challenge."

About 5,000 protesters marched in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and some of them spat on, kicked and burned the U.S. flag. Others shouted "Death to America!" as they held copies of the Quran above their heads.

One group carried black flags and another beat an effigy of Bush with their shoes, chanting "Bush, the killer."

In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, a small crowd of protesters in the capital of Jakarta pelted a portrait of Bush with tomatoes. The 50 demonstrators were outnumbered 4-1 by police.

Hundreds of people in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, shouted and burned U.S. and Israeli flags outside the U.S. Embassy. The crowd dispersed peacefully after handing a memorandum to embassy officials.

"We just want Americans to be aware that their soldiers' behavior have insulted Islam and their government attitude has hurt Muslim people all over the world by its support of Israel's torturing of Palestinians and its military's killing our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, Iraq," said a statement distributed by protesters.

In Bahrain, home to the U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet, more than 100 marchers raised copies of the Quran and chanted, "Death to George Bush."