When will Muslims learn not to play with fire?

AN Afghan man, enraged over the alleged desecration of a Koran in Greece, was severely burned when he tried to firebomb an Athens police station yesterday.

His reaction to the perceived insult was followed today by full-scale riot, in which police fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of Muslims in central Athens, according to this report.

A stock photo showing the consequences of messing with matches

The clashes occurred outside Parliament as the demonstrators threw rocks and plastic bottles at police, and smashed windows of a luxury hotel in central Syntagma Square.

Chanting “God is great!” and waving leather-bound copies of the Koran, about 1,000 Muslim immigrants began the demonstration with a march to Parliament to express their outrage over the an incident in which a police officer is said to have torn up an Iraqi immigrant’s Koran while checking his identity papers.

The clashes kicked off after the protest had dwindled to about 300.

Protester Manala Mohammed, a Syrian national, said:

We want the officer or officers involved to be prosecuted, and the government to issue an apology. We want people to show us respect.

Waves of illegal immigration over the past few years have led to an influx of Muslims to Greece, mostly from Pakistan and Afghanistan. The majority live in squalid, overcrowded apartments in poor areas.

Greek rights activist Thanassis Kourkoulas, one of the protest organisers, said the marches were intended to show immigrants “have a voice.” He added:

What happened is a great insult to every Muslim, every immigrant and every Greek who respects democracy.

Just over a week ago we learned that one of three Muslims who tried to burn down headquarters of a publishing company in London was injured when he tried to set fire to a picture of George W Bush during a Motoon protest in 2006.

Ali Beheshti, 41, was convicted of recklessly damaging property and endangering life along with Abrar Mirza, 23, and Abbas Taj, 31.  The bungling trio conspired to firebomb the house of publisher Martin Rynja, whose Gibson Square Books had been planning to publish The Jewel of Medina, which is a semi-fictional account of the inventor of Islam’s relationship with his child bride, Aisha.

See an hilarious account of the incident over at mediawatchwatch.