Protesters hung dirty shoes and sandals around the necks of cardboard models of George W. Bush outside the doorways of houses throughout Bangladesh. Angry teenagers in Calcutta vented their rage at a Nike outlet store. And in Arab nations, rage was accompanied by denial as U.S. troops entered Baghdad.
As the U.S.-led assault on Iraq closed in on Baghdad, war protesters across the Muslim world turned out in smaller numbers than previous weeks but with a fresh supply of anti-U.S. sentiment.
U.S. troops invaded Baghdad over the weekend and now occupy most of the city, although some resistance remains. Combat in the capital city claimed the lives of over 1,000 Iraqi troops, while the U.S. troop death toll reached 91 on Tuesday.
In the Middle East, skepticism about the accuracy of the news reporting in Iraq is first on the mind of many.
“The Americans have been lying a lot since the beginning of this campaign so I don’t believe them,” said Hisham Moniyyeh, 27, to the Associated Press Monday morning while working in his currency exchange shop in Sidon, Lebanon.
In Cairo, Egypt, a man on the street expressed skepticism about the success of a U.S. occupation of Baghdad.
“It is a psychological war. If it is true, then it is only a military strategy, to lure the American forces into a trap.”
“The Americans can never stay in Baghdad,” said a 23-year-old hairdresser in Syria. “Baghdad is noble Arab land.”
Traffic halted for several hours on Friday afternoon in Bahrain’s capital city, Manama, as 7,000 protesters carrying miniature models of scud missiles marched through the streets chanting “Children are dying, women are dying, let’s go on jihad.”
Palestinian protesters in the West Bank held rallies in Gaza City and Nablus with attendance in the thousands each. Waving Iraqi and Palestinian flags while burning Israeli and American flags, the protesters held a mock funeral featuring a coffin with “U.N. Security Council” written on it.
In Calcutta, India, about 200 students destroyed a Nike outlet shop. The store’s windows were smashed and the showroom temporarily occupied by teenagers shouting anti-U.S. and anti-war slogans.
“We will move from house to house in the city to urge people across the state to boycott the products which are brought to our country from the U.S. and the U.K.,” said 15-year-old protester Asgar Ali to an Agence-France Press reporter.
“We are feeling insecure,” said Kamal Jain, a spokesman of the Nike shop. “We are not sure whether we will be able to reopen the shop under the circumstances.”
An ancient Persian proverb claims the Pakistani city of Multan is best known for heat, dust, beggars, and burial grounds. On Friday, Apr. 4, protesters were added to that list, as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth was host to the largest anti-war protest of the week, drawing an estimated 50,000 people to this little known yet historically significant city of about 1 million.
After finishing Friday afternoon prayers, tens of thousands of Muslims in the small, crowded city in central Pakistan marched through the streets holding signs and burning effigies of George W. Bush and Tony Blair.
An organizer addressing the crowd urged them to prepare for holy war against “American infidels.”
Bangladesh’s Independence Day celebrations were limited because most of the nation’s police and security personnel had to patrol daily anti-war protests. Instead, garlands of dirty shoes adorned effigies of Bush. In Bangladesh, where city streets are frequently dotted with cow patties, the soil having absorbed at least four millennia of feces, shoes placed on a body are meant to show the utmost disrespect.