Pakistan: Newsweek apology not enough

Pakistan today dismissed an apology and retraction by American magazine Newsweek of a report alleging desecration of Islam’s holy book, the Koran, at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said the report “insulted the feelings of Muslims … just an apology is not enough. They should think 101 times before publishing news that hurts hearts.”

His comments came a day after the foreign ministry reiterated a demand for a probe into the alleged desecration.

The report triggered bloody riots in Afghanistan and protests in other Muslim countries, including Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism.

Yesterday, the US magazine withdrew its story in its May 9 edition that interrogators at the US prison placed copies of Islam’s holy book in washrooms and flushed one book in the toilet to get inmates to talk.

In retracting the story, Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker said that “based on what we know now, we are retracting our original story that an internal military investigation had uncovered Koran abuse at Guantanamo Bay”.

In New Zealand, visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuiri said Newsweek’s retraction of the story “will definitely help” defuse some of the anger in the Muslim world, but “unfortunately some damage has been done”.

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, a hard-line Pakistani Islamist leader and opposition lawmaker, rejected Newsweek’s apology.

“The objective of the change in their statement is to cool the anger among Muslims of the world,” Ahmed said.

He said Islamic groups in Pakistan, Egypt, Malaysia, Britain, Turkey and other countries would go ahead with planned rallies on May 27 to protest the alleged desecration.