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Beheading an 'ugly crime'
13/05/2004 18:49 - (SA)
Riyadh - The "horrible" beheading of Nicholas Berg in Iraq is as much a disaster for Muslims as the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal is for the United States, Arabs said on Thursday.
From Riyadh to Beirut, Arab governments, newspapers and political groups joined in worldwide condemnation of the video of the young American being decapitated by a group of masked men posted on Tuesday on an Islamist website linked to the al-Qaeda terror group.
A Saudi newspaper said Muslims were the first to condemn the beheading.
"While the human rights violations against prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq indicted the Americans, forcing their leaders to apologise, condemnation of the slaughter spectacle comes from the Muslims before anyone else" wrote Al-Watan.
Muslims cannot in any way accept that those who beheaded Berg claim to adhere to Islam, "which came to guide humanity, not to practice such acts that harm 14 centuries of tolerance" the paper said.
Arab News said Berg's beheading and the gruesome scenes of "Palestinian militants holding high in triumph a bloody body part from a slain Israeli soldier alongside a copy of the Koran" were not only revolting, but also devastatingly damaging.
"Those photos are as much a political disaster for the Arabs as the prison ones are for the Americans" the English-language daily wrote.
On Tuesday, six Israeli soldiers were killed when their troop transport was blown to pieces during an army raid into Gaza City. Some of their remains were only returned by Palestinian militants after mediation by the Palestinian leadership and Egyptian officials.
"The Abu Ghraib photos blew away America's attempts to claim the moral high ground in Iraq. The latest ones pull the rug from underneath the Iraqis and Palestinians", playing straight into the hands of US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Arab News said.
Lebanon denounced the "ignoble" beheading - but voiced suspicion at the timing of an "ugly crime" which drove the torture of Iraqi prisoners by US-led forces from the headlines.
Some Arabs suspicious of US motives have suggested the Berg video was a montage by US intelligence to draw attention away from the prison scandal.
On Wednesday, Lebanon's Shiite Muslim militant group Hezbollah also harshly criticised the beheading and questioned the timing of such a "horrible" act.
"It has a suspect timing which serves the American administration and the occupation forces in Iraq and offers them justification and pretexts for their inhuman practices against Iraqi detainees" it said.
"The beheading of American Nicholas Berg by an Iraqi group chanting 'God is Great' is a horrific act of the greatest magnitude" said the English-language Jordan Times.
- AFP
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