Muslim Arabs on Friday expressed anger, both with Washington and their own leaders, over the alleged desecration of the Quran by Americans at Guantanamo Bay as Palestinians took to the streets in protest. At the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, around 2,000 demonstrators held aloft copies of the Quran and Hamas flags as they marched through the streets in a protest organised by the group. American and Israeli flags were burnt during the demonstration following the main weekly Muslim prayers, while 400 mounted a similar protest in the West Bank city of Hebron. The United States has promised action against soldiers who allegedly defiled copies of the Quran.
More than a dozen people have died in Pakistan and Afghanistan during three days of rioting over the alleged incident, with protests continuing Friday.
Nizar Rayan, a Hamas political leader, said Palestinian demonstrators were outraged by "the profanation of the Quran by the enemies of God at Guantanamo, and by the Zionist enemies in the prison of occupation".
Egypt's opposition condemned the reports and blamed Arab leaders' impotence for the fact that they arose at all.
"The Muslim Brotherhood has been shaken by news of the desecration of the Quran by American interrogators at Guantanamo," the movement's leader Mohamed Mahdi Akef said.
The banned but tolerated group "expresses its extreme anger, firmly condemns and deplores this odious and humiliating act, and calls on the American government to publicly apologise".
Calling for the toughest punishment to be meted out on the perpetrators, the Brotherhood blamed regional weakness for the disputed event.
"If it wasn't for Arabs' paralysis and impotence, these criminals would not have committed this act," it said.
One-time US foe Libya condemned the "irresponsible and immoral acts", saying they would likely nourish "terrorism".
In Iraq, Sunni and Shia imams alike spoke out against the alleged desecration in their sermons.
"We condemn the desecrations of the Quran carried out by American soldiers at Guantanamo," said Sheikh Abdel Zahra Suyaidi, a follower of Shia radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.
Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdel Ghafur al-Samarrai complained: "In Guantanamo, the Quran is torn up and thrown in while Muslims don't lift a finger."
Saudi Arabia urged Washington to carry out a speedy investigation and punish those responsible.
"(Riyadh) calls on the competent authorities to implement a swift enquiry into the cases," a foreign ministry source said.
"If the cases turn out to be true, the Saudi government underlines the necessity of taking dissuasive measures... against those responsible (for the desecration) to prevent its repetition and to respect Muslims' feelings around the world."
An editorial in the London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi complained that "the Arab world is totally submissive to the United States".
"Authorities, clerics and official media only react once they have the green light from Washington. From now on, the Arabs are like a corpse. They will not react, even if Makkah is occupied," the paper said.
The director of the London-based Islamic Observatory, self-proclaimed defender of Muslim rights around the world, poured scorn on Arab leaders.
"Arab and Muslim rulers are apostates. Their people are scorned, frustrated and tied up," Yasser Serri told AFP.
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