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Saudi papers slam American's beheading in Iraq
A Saudi newspaper said Thursday that Muslims were the first to condemn the beheading of a US citizen in Iraq, and another slammed both the decapitation and the parading of Israeli soldiers' remains by Palestinian militants.
A Saudi newspaper said Thursday that Muslims were the first to condemn the beheading of a US citizen in Iraq, and another slammed both the decapitation and the parading of Israeli soldiers' remains by Palestinian militants.
"While the human rights violations against prisoners at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq indicted the Americans, forcing their leaders to apologize, 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 Nicholas Berg on video claim to adhere to Islam, "which came to guide humanity, not to practice such acts that harm 14 centuries of tolerance," the paper said.
A video posted Tuesday on an Islamist website linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network showed Berg being decapitated with a large knife by a group of masked men.
Six Israeli soldiers were killed the same day when their troop transport was blown to pieces during an army raid into Gaza City that also left eight Palestinians dead and scores wounded.
The attack led to gruesome scenes of militants brandishing in the streets what they said were remains of the dead soldiers.
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.
"We were revolted and horrified by the Abu Ghraib photos (of US soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners) ... We cannot now keep silent when confronted by these new, no less depraved, photographic trophies of war displaying acts even more inhuman," the English-language daily wrote.
"Those photos are as much a political disaster for the Arabs as the prison ones are for the Americans," the paper said.
"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, it said.
