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Newsweek Backtracks As Anger Spreads Over Koran Claim
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com International Editor
May 16, 2005
Page 3 of 3
A mosque in Jakarta, Indonesia was also the scene of another protest after Friday prayers, and thousands of students demonstrated in the Yemeni capital, San'a.
Adding its voice to other calls, the International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS) - a body of Sunni and Shi'ite scholars from around the world - demanded a U.S. apology and urged Muslims to rise to the challenge facing their religion.
"This latest scandalous incident will only serve to increase anti-American sentiments amongst Muslims worldwide," opined the Muslim Association of Britain, while Lebanon's senior Shi'ite cleric, Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah railed against what he called an American campaign aimed at "disrespecting" and smearing Islam.
The situation echoes instances in the past in which Muslims have been roused to fury over issues deemed offensive to their faith, including the Salman Rushdie "blasphemy" affair, and unfounded rumors in 1996 that Israel was digging under the mosques on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Both episodes led to considerable loss of life.
"Newsweek's belated retraction is unlikely to blunt the force of this as yet another new pretext for jihad," wrote Islam scholar Robert Spencer, author of a website called Jihad Watch.
"The pretexts are ever new; only the jihad is constant," he said.
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