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MOGADISHU — Thousands gathered in a Mogadishu stadium Wednesday for a demonstration organised by the Al Qaeda-inspired group Shebab to protest a now abandoned plan by a US church to burn copies of the Koran.
Florida pastor Terry Jones cancelled his plans at the weekend under pressure from the White House, but the Somali group posted pictures of individuals burning the holy Muslim book on its websites on Tuesday and called the protest.
"The Americans are trying to hide these evil acts from the public but we know and we saw what they did," Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage, one of the insurgent group's leaders and its main spokesman, told the crowd.
"This will draw immediate retaliation from the billions of Muslims around the world," Rage said.
The stadium in the war-battered city was filled with orderly rows of protestors listening to radical Shebab clerics and chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) and "Down with America".
Groups of women wearing head-to-toe black abayas held open Korans while some children were also encouraged to attend. One turbaned child no older than 10 could be seen brandishing a handgun and holding a Koran under his arm.
"Today, brothers and sisters, we are here to voice our displeasure with this blatant desecration of our Koran by American church leaders," Rage said.
"The enemies of Allah have made clear their intention to destroy Islam."
Thousands of Muslims worldwide demonstrated against Jones's plans to burn hundreds of copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington in 2001.
The demonstrators in Mogadishu and at other smaller rallies organised in Shebab-controlled areas of southern and central Somalia had placards that read: "Die and go to hell."
"Anti-American demonstrations are taking place in every part of the country. The aim is to show the enemy the number of angry Muslims who follow the Holy Koran they burned," Rage said.
"This rally was very big today and everybody was very angry at the American devils who burned the Koran," Mohamed Suleban, a demonstrator, told AFP.
"I saw some pictures that were posted on the Internet showing two white guys burning the Koran. You cannot imagine how my heart felt," he said.
"We will kill Americans over this, we will make them regret it," said Shueyb Hasan, another 18-year-old demonstrator.
The Shebab's overall leader, Sheikh Ahmed Abdi Godane "Abu Zubayr", released a message on September 11 in which he claimed the US pastor's plans were evidence that the West was hostile to all Muslims.
Shebab fighters have been waging a fierce insurgency aimed at toppling the transitional federal government, which has the backing of the United States and most of the international community.
The embattled administration has owed its survival largely to an African Union deployment of soldiers from Uganda and Burundi, whom the Shebab accuse of embarking on a Christian crusade against Muslim Somalia.
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