By EDD K. USMAN
United States Embassy Press Attaché Karen Kelley stressed yesterday that the "US will never tolerate" disrespect for the Qur’an, the holy book of some 1.4 billion Muslims around the world.
The American official was referring to a recent Newsweek report that US interrogators in a prison camp in Guantanamo Bay had desecrated the Qur’an by flushing it down a toilet and committing other forms of offensive acts to rattle Muslim prisoners. The magazine later retracted the story.
"We want Muslims around the world, including the Philippines, to know that we share and understand their concerns over these allegations. Disrespect for the Qur’an is something that the United States will never tolerate," said Kelley in a letter to Manila Bulletin.
Kelley gave the statement in the wake of Muslim Filipinos’ expressions of concern over the alleged Qur’an desecration.
The incident sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan last May 10 and protests in Pakistan and Indonesia, with demonstrators asking the US government to punish those responsible for the desecration.
The protests prompted the White House to speak on the controversy that has swept many parts of the Islamic world.
"One of the values that we hold most dearly here in the United States is religious freedom, and the ability of people to be able to worship freely," said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, adding that the Defense Department was investigating the claims.
A May 26 statement from the Pentagon said its inquiry has found "no credible evidence" linking any US service member to the alleged flushing of a Qur’an down the toilet.
Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, testifying in a Senate hearing early May, said: "I want to speak directly to Muslims in America and throughout the world. Disrespect for the Holy Qur’an is not now, nor has it ever been, nor will it ever be, tolerated by the United States. We honor the sacred books of all the world’s great religions. Disrespect for the Holy Koran is abhorrent to us all."
On the other hand, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) revealed "that it had provided the Pentagon with confidential reports about US personnel disrespecting or mishandling Qur’ans at Gitmo in 2002 and 2003."
But Defense Department spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said the ICRC reports could not be substantiated.
