Thousands of Indonesian Muslim activists staged a rally outside the US-embassy in Jakarta yesterday, condemning the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book, the Koran, by interrogators at the US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Despite the US-based Newsweek magazine's retraction of its report and apology, it failed to mollify outraged Muslim activists in Indonesia.
Witnesses estimated that around 10,000 activists from dozens of Muslim groups, including hardliner organizations and Islamic-based political parties, including the Islamic Defender Front and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council, and several Islamic-based political parties, demonstrated at outside the US embassy in Jakarta.
It was the biggest anti-US protest in Indonesia, home to the world's most populous Muslim country, in recent months.
The protestors unfurled banners denouncing what they called US arrogance.
One read: "Chase the US imperialism out of Muslim countries."
Newsweek said in its initial report two weeks ago that US interrogators at Guantanamo detention center committed desecration of the Koran by placing copies of the Islam holy book on toilets, and in at least one instance, a US servicemen had put a copy of Koran in a toilet.
The protestors demanded that President George W. Bush stop insulting Muslims and immediately close down the Guantanamo detention center as well as other prisons, including Abu Ghraib in Baghdad.
They also called on the US to immediately pull out from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.
The demonstrators warned that Muslims worldwide would take revenge for what the US servicemen had done.
"We will continue to press the US government to stop desecrating the Holy Koran and Muslims," said Syaifullah of Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia, one of the Islamic hardliner groups.
A number of leaders in the Indonesian Muslim community have previously condemned the reports, arguing that any such desecration would be intolerable and abominable.
Nearly 88 percent of Indonesia's 215 million people are Muslim, making it the worlds most populous Islamic nation.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS