JAKARTA, Indonesia — Photographs depicting the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops prompted a wave of outrage across the Islamic world Tuesday as Muslims condemned the United States for what they perceived as cruelty and hypocrisy.
For many Muslims already angry over the U.S. invasion of Iraq and Washington’s support of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the photos of naked and hooded Iraqis subjected to humiliation at the hands of their guards confirmed the widespread view that Washington has no desire to bring human rights to Iraq.
"People are outraged," said Mona Makram-Ebeid, a professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. "Even after everything else that’s happened, this is the final drop that makes the U.S. totally lose credibility. Whatever they say about human rights, about democracy, nobody is listening anymore."
Newspapers from Algeria to Pakistan to Indonesia gave prominent play to the news of the abuse at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The photographs were first aired on CBS’ "60 Minutes II," and The New Yorker magazine first published details of the U.S. investigation.
The graphic pictures shocked and offended Muslims who regard nudity and sexual abuse at the hands of Americans — including grinning women — as a deep humiliation.
"There is no excuse for what happened," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told reporters. "We cannot accept it, and there is no justification at all for such inhumane treatment of the Iraqi prisoners."
With its frequent criticism of governments around the world for human rights abuses and mistreatment of jailed dissidents, the United States had created an expectation that it would treat prisoners humanely. Respect for human rights was also one of the reasons the United States gave for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
In Pakistan, the inflammatory nature of the photos reinforced the existing belief that brutality and degradation are common weapons in the U.S. war on terror, whether it is being waged in the streets of Iraqi cities or the mountains of neighboring Afghanistan.
"The ones who will be really outraged are those who have family members in those prisons and the religious fundamentalists who will use those photos as a tool to bash Americans," said Saad Ahsanuddin, a Harvard-educated Pakistani entrepreneur who returned to his family’s home in 2001 after nine years in the United States.
In Indonesia, the country with the largest Islamic population, the disclosures were yet another disheartening development for moderate Muslims who say it will further undermine their ability to advocate closer ties to the U.S.
"This puts us in a very difficult position, people like me who would like to see a reasonable relationship," said Salim Said, an American-educated political science lecturer at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.
"Now the people’s minds have been made up. They believe that all the Americans are committing atrocities," said Fahad al Kheraiji, a U.S.-educated professor of mass communications at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "If you try to argue they say, ‘Didn’t you see the pictures?’ They are saying it everywhere."
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