Source: Alalam.ir, 24-05-2008
BAGHDAD-An aide to Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has urged punishment to the soldier who desecrated the Holy Qur'an to serve as "an example to others."
Sheikh Abdel Mahdi al-Karbalai called for punishment in a sermon read to the faithful during Friday prayers at the central mosque of Karbala.
The US sniper was found to have used Islam's holy book for target practice on May 9, 2008 west of Baghdad.
The copy of the Qur'an was found two days later by Iraqis on a firing range in Radwaniyah with 14 bullet holes in it and graffiti written on its pages, tribal leaders said.
The US military said it had disciplined the sniper and removed him from Iraq after the desecration.
Al-Karbalai said: "As well as being expelled, that soldier should suffer an exemplary punishment in a way that is an example to others."
"What happened in Baghdad, where a solider from the occupied forces was discovered shooting a copy of the sacred Qur'an, was a grave insult to the feelings of Muslims."
US military commanders in Iraq held a ceremony to formally apologize and ease the tension.
Major General Jeffrey Hammond, the commander of US forces in Baghdad, also met community leaders from Radwaniyah on the capital's western outskirts and issued a "formal apology" for the incident.
The imam of Karbala dismissed the excuses advanced by the US military to the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the expulsion of the soldier in question.
"What that soldier did offended the feelings of all Muslims and not only those of Iraqis," he said.
"For this, he must be tried in a way that is a warning for all the others to prevent this kind of thing happening again," al-Karbalai said.
About 70 Afghan MPs walked out of parliament last Tuesday to protest at insulting the Muslim holy book and demand the soldier be tried.
"The people of Afghanistan can tolerate anything but we would never tolerate insult to our religion and the Qur'an," said Sliman Yari, a member of the upper house of the Afghan parliament.
"The soldier who has committed this unforgivable crime must be tried," said another MP, Arsala Jamal, as others shouted "Down with Americans, down with the infidels."
President George W. Bush has apologized to Prime Minister Maliki but Iraq's government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh has said Bush's apology was not enough.
"We need to try this soldier since he committed a grievous crime. This is what the Iraqi government wants. It is not satisfied with just an apology," he said this week.