Posted on 02/19/2006 8:07:38 AM PST by janetjanet998
JAKARTA, Indonesia - Hundreds of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Sunday, smashing the windows of a guard post but failing to push through the gates. Several people were injured.
Pakistani security forces, meanwhile, sealed off the capital of Islamabad to block a planned mass demonstration and fired tear gas and gunshots to chase off protesters. In Turkey, tens of thousands gathered in Istanbul chanting slogans against Denmark, Israel and the United States.
Protests over the cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September and have been republished in other European publications and elsewhere, have swept across the Muslim world, growing into mass outlets for rage against the West in general, and Israel and the United States in particular.
Christians also have become targets. Pakistani Muslims protesting in the southern city of Sukkur ransacked and burned a church Sunday after hearing accusations that a Christian man had burned pages of the Quran, Islam's holy book.
That incident came a day after Muslims protesting in the Nigerian city of Maiduguri attacked Christians and burned 15 churches in a three-hour rampage that killed at least 15 people. Some 30 other people have died during protests over the cartoons that erupted about three weeks ago.
In Jakarta, about 400 people marched to the heavily fortified U.S. mission in the center of the city, behind a banner reading "We are ready to attack the enemies of the Prophet."
Protesters throwing stones and brandishing wooden staves tried to break through the gates. They set fire to U.S. flags and a poster of President Bush and smashed the windows of a guard outpost before dispersing after a few minutes.
The U.S. Embassy called the attacks deplorable, describing them as acts of "thuggery."
A protest organizer said the West, and particularly the United States, is attacking Islam.
"They want to destroy Islam through the issue of terrorism ... and all those things are engineered by the United States," said Maksuni, who only uses one name.
"We are fighting America fiercely this time," he said. "And we also are fighting Denmark."
In Pakistan, where protests last week left five people dead, police put up roadblocks around Islamabad to keep people from entering the capital for a planned mass protest called by a coalition of six hard-line Islamic parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal — United Action Forum.
Authorities also detained several lawmakers and Islamic leaders during raids in three cities and announced they would arrest anyone joining a gathering of more than five people to prevent the demonstration.
Opposition leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman, a senior figure in the Islamic coalition, was eventually given permission to lead a small rally through a square in the city center. The protesters chanted "God is great!" and "Any friend of America is a traitor."
But when about 100 other protesters tried to reach the square, officers fired tear gas and at least one gunshot to chase them off. More gunshots were heard later in the city, but it wasn't clear who fired them. At least two policemen were injured, one bleeding from the head. Several demonstrators also were hurt.
A crowd of 700 people, some throwing stones at police, tried to march toward Islamabad's heavily guarded diplomatic enclave about 1.3 miles from the square but with blocked by troops in armored personnel carriers.
Police also blocked about 1,500 protesters from reaching Islamabad from the city of Peshawar by putting shipping containers and sandbags on a bridge along a highway leading to the capital, said Mohammed Iqbal, a key member of the religious alliance.
Elsewhere in Pakistan, about 600 people staged a protest in Chaman, a town near the Afghan border, burning Danish flags and an effigy of the Danish prime minister.
Such protests prompted Denmark on Sunday to temporarily recall its ambassador to Pakistan, Bent Wigotski, because it was impossible for him "to perform his job duties during the present circumstances," the Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement
When are we going to fight back?
This is only a first step. Punishment must follow.
When the President gives the order, Natch!
Almost 100% of the US media has refused to show the cartoons on grounds they offend muslims. Now they attack our embassies?
I thought if we were kind and sensitive to their needs they would leave us alone. (sarc)
"Christians also have become targets."
Christians (and all other religions) became targets on the day Mohammed was born. Unfortunately, most nonmuslims don't realize this yet.
Iran is waiting just around the bend. Time to make the donuts.
"When the President gives the order"
Hold your breath wating for that...
I hope there is an ambassador out there somewhere who has
the backbone to DEFEND his embassy, who will NOT let Americans be taken hostage or abused, who will give his
Marines live ammunition and order them to protect American
interests.
Are those pesky Marines defending the Embassy again........
(for now... Iran's working on it.)
Four months after the fact, violence mainly against inanimate objects (or each other), mainly populated with disenchanted unemployed who need something to blame for their miserable life, and signs printed for the Western media's benefit so the MSM can continue to help them with their shared hate-America-first agenda.
Pathetic.
Either bring it or don't, Mo.
Didn't it used to be that attacks on an embassy were considered acts of war?
The true answer is we already are.
We've dropped a couple hundred THOUSAND terrorist and terrorist wannabes in Iraq.
Those same people COULD BE roaming other parts of the world (and they would be too) but we took the fight to them in Iraq and THEY are losing it, despite what some will say.
But it's ok to behead little girls and kill Christians.
Go figure.
If it's all this over a cartoon, boy are they really going to be pissed when we use a W-88 to turn the Kaaba Stone into high energy dust!
Damm, those "few" militant muslims sure get around.
Just yesterday they were burning emvbassies in Syria
The day before the handful of them were rioting in France and then in Belgium.
The day before that the several of them were running wild in Nigeria.
The previous day they were burning churches in the mid east.
I'm damm glad that there are "only" a "handful" of those miltants who have highjacked a peaceful religion.
Proper tactical employment of a W-88 sure puts an end to the debate, dosn't it?
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