Australia’s espionage chief has agreed with Muslim leaders that tough new laws seem to single out Muslims. However, Dennis Richardson, head of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, told the Joint Parliamentary Committee that he made no apology for it, the Herald Sun newspaper reported Friday.
See also “ASIO chief defends anti-terror laws”, The Age, 20 May 2005
Robert Spencer applauds Richardson’s “refreshing directness and honesty”.
It will take more than a retraction and another empty “Pentagon enquiry” to ameliorate the anger towards the US that is now felt widely in the Muslim world, Muqtedar Khan argues.
The row over a retracted Newsweek story that US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay desecrated the Quran is overshadowing genuine incidents of religious humiliation, according to Human Rights Watch. “Around the world, the United States has been humiliating Muslim detainees by offending their religious beliefs,” said Reed Brody, special counsel for the New York-based watchdog on Wednesday.
Newsweek on Monday retracted an article quoting an unidentified US official as saying that a probe into allegations of prisoner abuse at Guantanamo found that interrogators had thrown a Quran into a toilet to rattle Muslim prisoners. The weekly magazine said the sole anonymous source had “backed away” from the account.
Brody said condemnation of the Newsweek article, which sparked anti-US protests in Afghanistan and other countries that left at least 14 dead, had been so vocal as to drown out documented complaints of similar mistreatment. He said Human Rights Watch (HRW) had heard allegations that US interrogators disrespected the Quran from several former detainees, including three Briton and a Russian.
“The case of Babar Ahmad, jailed UK-US political prisoner, took one step closer to seeing Babar being extradited to the US, despite insufficient evidence to convict him under UK law and no evidence having been presented for his extradition. Once in the US, Babar faces the very real threat of transfer from civil to military courts under Military Order One and even torture at Guantánamo or by other governments, through a process the US authorities euphemistically call ‘extraordinary rendition’. Further, if convicted, under what would probably be a highly questionable legal process, he faces the risk of execution.”
MAB press release, 19 May 2005
See also MCB press release, 17 May 2005
A British terror suspect accused of running websites inciting murder and urging Muslims to fight a holy war today lost the first round of his court battle against extradition to the US. The home secretary, Charles Clarke, now has 60 days to decide whether Babar Ahmad should be sent to the US to face charges that he raised money to support terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan through internet sites and emails. Mr Ahmad denies the accusations.
The judge said “none of the statutory bars” applied to refusing extradition, but accepted it was a “difficult and troubling case” that was sure to go to the high court. “The defendant is a British subject who is alleged to have committed offences which, if the evidence were available, could have been prosecuted in this country,” Judge Workman said.
“White House staffers scurried this past week to souse the flames sparked by Newsweek‘s recent story, which revealed that an internal US military investigation had found substantial evidence interrogators at Guantánamo Bay had desecrated the Koran. Newsweek‘s story led to outrage against the US in Afghanistan and elsewhere where violent protests led to at least 15 deaths and hundreds of injuries. The White House damage control team has been successful, however, Newsweek retracted their story on May 16.
“But for what? The White House claims Newsweek‘s story led to the preventable deaths that resulted from the protests. ‘People lost their lives. People are dead,’ Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld groused. ‘People need to be very careful about what they say, just as they need to be careful about what they do.’ Are we really supposed to believe that Rumsfeld suddenly cares about dead Muslims? Not exactly. Rumsfeld is just attempting to hide the truth.
“Newsweek should have never retracted their story. In fact, Newsweek wasn’t the first media outlet to report on the trashing of the holy Islamic text by US military personal at Guantánamo.”
Joshua Frank argues that Newsweek withdrew its Qur’an desecration report under government pressure.
Meanwhile, Juan Cole asks “Has Newsweek retracted?” Informed Comment, 17 May 2005
“Newsweek magazine may have apologized, but to many in the Muslim world, it’s too late and much too little…. Critics called it a strategic move in the face of the overwhelming and violent reaction. The report sparked protests in Afghanistan, where at least 15 were killed and more than 100 injured. Many Muslims believe Newsweek succumbed to pressure from the U.S. government to backtrack.”
You know, they could just have a point. Furthermore, as already noted, Newsweek‘s backtracking was ambiguous to say the least.
“The Left’s journalistic jihad against the War on Terror inspired the deaths of 16 Muslims, the injury of at least 100 more, the destruction of numerous Western buildings, and untold hatred for U.S. troops stationed in the Arab world – with a lie.”
Ben Johnson attacks Newsweek for reporting that torture of Guantánamo Bay detainees included the desecration of the Qur’an.
Front Page Magazine, 16 May 2005
However, in its forthcoming issue, Newsweek points out that it was “not the first to report allegations of desecrating the Qur’an. As early as last spring and summer, similar reports from released detainees started surfacing in British and Russian news reports, and in the Arab news agency Al-Jazeera; claims by other released detainees have been covered in other media since then.”
(See, for example, Al-Jazeera, 7 July 2004 or BBC News, 4 August 2004)
Reporter Evan Thomas also states that Newsweek has since contacted Marc Falkoff, a New York defence lawyer representing 13 Yemeni detainees at Guantánamo. “According to Falkoff’s declassified notes, a mass-suicide attempt – when 23 detainees tried to hang or strangle themselves in August 2003 – was triggered by a guard’s dropping a Qur’an and stomping on it. One of Falkoff’s clients told him, ‘Another detainee tried to kill himself after the guard took his Qur’an and threw it in the toilet’. A U.S. military spokesman, Army Col. Brad Blackner, dismissed the claims as unbelievable. ‘If you read the Al Qaeda training manual, they are trained to make allegations against the infidels,’ he said.”
So that’s alright, then. Along with other allegations of torture at Guantánamo, it’s all an Al Qaeda plot, aided and abetted by the “Left”.
For Juan Cole’s take on the Newsweek report, see Informed Comment, 16 May 2005
Austrian Muslims have expressed concerns at a modified immigration law, fearing Muslims would take the brunt of the new restrictions as they make up the majority of immigrants in the south-central European country.
“Many Muslims still don’t hold Austrian citizenship, which makes them vulnerable to the new bill,” Omar Al-Rawi, the Islamic Religious Authority (IRA)’s official in charge of the integration file, told IslamOnline.net. He said that the amendments, for example, regard humanitarian work and assistance for refugees as illegal and punishable by law.
“The amendments stipulate that illegal and unregistered residents could face deportation and subject those who provide them with shelter to prison terms,” added Rawi, who is also a Member of Parliament for the opposition Socialist party.
“The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB) condemns the latest attack on Islam and all that is sacred to the Muslims. The reported flushing of the Holy Quran down the toilet by US soldiers at Guantánamo Bay detention centre represents the extreme contempt held for Islam and Muslims by the perpetrators of this shameful act which regrettably has been nurtured by the policies of the US Administration at all levels.”
MAB press release, 14 May 2005
See also “Muslim outrage at desecration of Qur’an – President Bush must take responsibility”, Muslim Council of Britain press release, 15 May 2005