QURAN'S PLACE IN MUSLIM LIFE IS KINDLING FOR FIRESTORM.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

To appreciate how Muslims feel about the Quran, Timothy Gianotti offers this analogy:

"The appropriate comparison is not that Jesus is to Christianity as Muhammad is to Islam," said Gianotti, associate professor of religious studies at the University of Oregon. "The more appropriate comparison is to say that Jesus is to Christianity as the Quran is to Islam."

Why? "Because Christians believe Jesus is God's word, made flesh. And Muslims believe the Quran is God's living word, made book."

Gianotti and other local Muslims acknowledge that it can be difficult for non-Muslims to fathom the depth of outrage felt in the wake of Newsweek magazine's 200-word report that U.S. interrogators at the military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, intentionally desecrated a copy of Islam's holy book by flushing it down a toilet.

Newsweek's since-retracted report has stirred an international political firestorm. The White House said Tuesday the United States' image abroad had suffered irreparable damage from the article, while the State Department said it was telling its embassies around the world to spread the word that America respects all religious faiths.

Afghanistan's government, meanwhile, said Tuesday that Newsweek should be held responsible for damages caused by deadly anti-American riots that claimed at least 15 lives in several Afghan cities after the article appeared in the magazine's May 9 issue. The government also suggested that foreign forces may have helped turn the protests violent.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., announced Tuesday that it was responding to the Newsweek controversy by offering free copies of the Quran to the American public.

Not everyone agrees that the magazine can or should be held accountable. Tim Gleason, dean of the UO's School of Journalism, said it's "a bit far-fetched" to suggest that the magazine's brief report was the cause of rioting - especially in light of other, earlier news reports that made similar claims.

"The real horror is there's been so much of it," said Gleason, referring to alleged incidents of desecration.

The magazine's journalistic goof "is less a commentary on Newsweek and more a commentary on the practice of journalism today," Gleason said. The magazine's editors have acknowledged that, while they usually rely on two independent sources for stories, they did not do so in this instance.

"It appears some very good reporters and very good editors went with a story that was not as well-sourced as it should have been, and the mistake was made," Gleason said.

Ozgur "Ozzie" Pala, a UO graduate student from Turkey and president of the Muslim Student Association, said Newsweek was absolutely correct to report the desecration, if true - but seriously derelict if the report is untrue.

In his homeland, Pala said, people so revere the Quran that they won't touch it without ablution - a ritualistic washing. "The words in the Quran are God's words," he said.

The Quran, which means "recitation," is so revered that most Muslims memorize at least part of the text, and some memorize all 114 chapters. Muslims believe that the earthly book, bound between covers, is a copy of an eternal book that's kept in heaven.

The faithful believe that the angel Gabriel revealed the Quran to the prophet Muhammad over 22 years' time. Much of the book is written in rhymed Arabic prose, and Muslims believe that the rich text is humanly unmatchable, and thus a miracle confirming Muhammad's prophethood.

"We believe Arabic is going to be the language in the hereafter," Pala said.

Anita Weiss, an international studies professor and expert on the Muslim-dominated country of Pakistan, said she keeps a copy of the Quran on a high shelf in her office, as a sign of respect to visiting Muslims.

"You treat the physical document in much the same way that Americans treat the American flag - only the Quran is much more honorific than that," Weiss said. "You do not put the Quran on the floor, you do not smell the Quran, you do not let a dog near the Quran - this is true for even the most secularized, modernized Muslim."

Pakistan has a "blasphemy law" that carries the death penalty for desecrating the Quran, Weiss said.

Gianotti, who came to the UO three years ago to develop a new Islamic curriculum, said the Newsweek article didn't create but rather exacerbated an already deep suspicion of American motives in the Muslim world.

"There is widespread feeling that America is increasingly anti-Islamic in its foreign policy," Gianotti said. The Newsweek controversy feeds a perception that America is embarking "on a new era of imperialism and domination," he said.

Gianotti speculated that the Newsweek article may have carried greater weight with Muslims because it's viewed as a mainstream, pro-American source. "To the Muslim reader, that added credibility to the allegation," he said.

The magazine's retraction, meanwhile, is likely to be viewed by Muslims as an empty gesture, an action taken at the behest of the U.S. government, Gianotti said. He said he fears the incident complicates efforts to persuade Muslims "to trust America as a partner in nation building."

Gianotti said the best way to repair the damage is for the United States to be candid about what's happened at Guantanamo Bay, and to promote itself "as a country that protects the rights of Muslim citizens as much as it does its non-Muslim citizens."

The Associated Press contributed to this report