Quran more than a book for Muslims

DALLAS -- Almost daily, there's a new unconfirmed accusation that American soldiers or interrogators have mistreated Muslims. But what pushed thousands of Muslims into deadly demonstrations last week was a now-discredited report about the mistreatment of a book.

The Newsweek account of a Quran flushed down the toilet was the final straw for many in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other mostly Muslim countries, some experts say.

It was also an exceptionally large straw.

"It's not like just knocking down a religious leader or a priest or a rabbi," said John Esposito, a professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

Muslim tradition holds that the Quran is more than a sacred book: It's the physical embodiment of the literal words of God that were dictated to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel about 1,300 years ago. The book is held in even higher regard by many Muslims than most Christians have for the physical form of the Bible.

For traditional Muslims, a Quran used for prayer can't be written in, can't be placed on the floor and can't be put beneath other books. Particularly observant Muslims will keep it on a high shelf. It's never supposed to be brought into a bathroom.

Reverence for the book itself is even higher for religiously conservative, illiterate Muslims, said Nazif Shahrani, an anthropologist at Indiana University who grew up in Afghanistan. The mystery of the unreadable Arabic gives the text an additional sacred aura, he said.

"It's kept in the nicest place in the house and wrapped in the nicest cloth," he said. "The Quran is not a book. It's comparable to the body of Christ for Christians."

The recent riots are only the most recent of deadly demonstrations by religiously offended Muslims. Dozens died in several countries after the publication in 1989 of "The Satanic Verses" by Salman Rushdie. The novel was condemned by some Muslim clerics as blasphemous, and a death warrant, still in effect, was issued for Rushdie.

Mostly secular American culture has no easy equivalent or outrage, experts say.

Think of burning the flag. Or desecration of the Catholic host. Or the 1980s sculpture Piss Christ -- a crucifix placed in a jar with urine and lamb's blood.

The Newsweek account, in the May 9 issue, purported to report an investigation of abuse at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba: "Interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, placed Qurans on toilets and, in at least one case, flushed a holy book down the toilet."

Several days after publication, the item was picked up by commentators and politicians in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Demonstrations started in eastern Afghanistan, still a stronghold of supporters of the Taliban, and spread through that country and into Pakistan and Indonesia. At least 15 people have died and hundreds have been injured in clashes with government forces.

Newsweek retracted its report Monday, saying its original anonymous source had backed off. And U.S. military officials repeated previous statements that their investigations had turned up no religion-based abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo.

U.S. officials asked Newsweek on Tuesday to report on military practices intended to ensure the Quran is handled with respect. And the State Department issued a call to its embassies to emphasize that America respects all faiths.

But true or not, the Newsweek report was only the most recent of a series of similar unconfirmed accusations.

Critics of American policy have pointed to the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where traditional Muslim beliefs about modesty were intentionally violated, and to reports in various publications over the last year or more about copies of the Quran being desecrated.

"In that context, it all becomes believable," Esposito said.

It's impossible to separate the role of politics from that of religion in the recent demonstrations, said Robert Canfield, an anthropologist at Washington University in St. Louis who spent nine years in Afghanistan.

•	Quran more than a book for Muslims Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, Thursday, May 19, 2005 Byline: Jeffrey Weiss

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