Afghan clerics threaten holy war
FaizabadMay 16, 2005

A group of Afghan Muslim clerics has threatened to call for a holy war against the United States in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Koran.
The warning came yesterday after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 injured last week in the worst anti-American protests across the country since US forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.

The clerics in the conservative north-eastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted US President George Bush to handle the matter honestly and hand over the "culprits" to an Islamic country for punishment.

"If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad (holy war) against America," said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, after meeting in the main mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.

Clerics have traditionally been teachers and leaders in Afghan society and throughout its history they have rallied public opinion and sometimes led uprisings against unpopular rulers and foreign occupiers.

Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition that investigators probing abuses at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Korans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet". Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God.
- Reuters

http://www.theage.com.au/news/War-on-Terror/Afghan-clerics-threaten-holy-war/2005/05/15/1116095856723.html