BEIRUT, May 27: Waving copies of the Holy Quran and chanting anti-American slogans, Muslims across the world took to the streets on Friday to protest the desecration by US interrogators at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In Malaysia, Bangladesh, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt, outraged Muslims burned US flags and vowed revenge. “O America, listen, listen, with my blood I will protect my Quran,” shouted thousands of Lebanese at a Hezbollah rally in Beirut. “America is the enemy of Muslims.”

Similar protests swept the country’s Palestinian refugee camps, where bearded protesters hoisted pictures of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and his Iraq-based ally, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Thousands of activists protested in Bangladeshi cities after Friday prayers, burning US flags and effigies of President George Bush and his allies — President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“The days are not far off when the United States will disintegrate into pieces, by the curse of Allah, as it has insulted the Holy Quran,” the radical Islamic Constitution Movement’s Moulana Hemayetuddin told a rally in Dhaka. Hundreds of Jordanians protested after Friday prayers and marched on a main square in Amman.

“O Americans, your battle with the youths of the Quran will only bring you death,” chanted the crowd. Thousands of Egyptians, led by members of the Muslim Brotherhood, burnt US and Israeli flags, some accusing their government of not taking a strong position on the desecration reports.

In Beirut, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Kassem demanded the perpetrators be punished.

“This insult to the holy Quran, to all Muslims and to humanity altogether with such cheap desecration, is a crime that cannot be ignored,” he told protesters.

—Reuters