There. Now that I have your attention, it probably isn't that big a deal, but there has been significant rioting in Afghanistan (four dead at last count) and Pakistan due to reports in Newsweek and
the Guardian that the US military has been softening (i.e. humiliating) imprisoned muslims by flushing the Qur'an down the tiolet. Page by page.
The story first appeared in Newsweek magazine with claims that interrogators in Cuba, where hundreds of prisoners captured in Afghanistan are held, kept copies of the Qur'an in toilets, and "in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet". The US state department said it was investigating the claims. So it's not definite yet, but it seems about par for the course for the actions of our brave, brave interrogators.
Now for Americans who reserve their reverence for idolatry surrending the American flag or the Bible, imagine for a moment, being captured by Saudis, placed in a 5x5 pig cell and made to watch as some schmuck takes the Bible apart and flushes it down the tiolet for your edification.
Boy, that ought to win friends and influence people abroad, eh?
One can only speculate on Rush Limbaugh's riposte: "Hey, it's like frat boys wiping their butts with the New Testament! Get over it!"
For those less culturally sensitive souls, Juan Cole's Informed Comment offers a quick primer:
"Muslims are not to even touch a copy of the Koran when they have not performed their purifying ritual ablutions (washing in a special way with water), called wudu`."
"Pious Sunni Muslims consider the Koran to be the very word of God, which pre-existed the material world and was inscribed on a celestial "Tablet." The Koran itself says,
"That is indeed a noble Qur'an
In a Book kept hidden
Which none toucheth save the purified,
A Revelation from the Lord of the Worlds."
-Surat Al-Waq`ia
So this is bad mojo. It's difficult to imagine an appropriate analogy for the level of contempt the actions of interrogators at Gitmo have shown for Islam. If you're Catholic, imagine peeing onto the Eucharist (which for Catholics
is the body/blood of Christ and not just a symbolic representation) and you might get some idea of how bad this is.
The notion that desecrating the Islamic holy book will somehow even remotely garner useful information verges on the insane. What it will do however, the only thing it will do, is successfully enrage our erstwhile allies in the region, meaning ultimately more US soldiers killed, more US money wasted, more US isolation on the international scene and more contempt for our nation all over the world.
Nice work if you can get.
As Juan Cole concludes angrily:
Whatever goddam military genius came up with the bright idea of flushing the Koran down the toilet at Guantanamo should be court-martialed, and Bush had better get out there apologizing before this thing spirals further out of control.