Rage. Seething. Humiliation.

“They keep asking why we hate them? Why we detest them? Maybe they should look well in the mirror and then they will hate themselves,” said Khadija Mousa from Syria. “What I saw is very very humiliating. The Americans are showing their true image.”

“The liberators are worse than the dictators. This is the straw that broke the camel’s back for America,” said Abdel-Bari Atwan on Friday, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. …

“This will increase the hatred of America, not just in Iraq but abroad. Even those who sympathized with the Americans before will stop. It is not just a picture of torture, it is degrading. It touches on morals and religion.”

“Abu Ghraib prison was used for torture in Saddam’s time. People will ask now what’s the difference between Saddam and Bush. Nothing!,” added Saudi commentator Dawoud al-Shiryan.

Jamal Khashokggi, media advisor to Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in London, said U.S. officials responsible for policy in Iraq should be held responsible for such acts which he said reflected “deep contempt” for Arabs.

The publicity could not have been worse for Muslims with the sexual humiliation depicted in the photos particularly shocking.

“That really, really is the worst atrocity,” Atwan said. “It affects the honor and pride of Muslim people. It is better to kill them than sexually abuse them.”

“What it does is inflame the feelings of the masses about coalition forces…and it gives more reason for hatred of American policy in Iraq,” said Egyptian Ahmed Sherif, 49.

Arab satellite televisions, seen by millions of Arabs and Muslims, began their news bulletins with the pictures, which they said showed the “savagery” of U.S. troops.

“The pictures reflect the brutality of occupation and the absence of values and ethics which Americans said they came to Iraq to promote. They have shown the world how much malice and hatred they carry against Arabs,” added Ali Mohsen Obadi. …

“I was saddened. This was not just the humiliation of those poor Iraqis. I felt humiliated too and so all Muslims and their leaders should feel,” said Palestinian Mahmoud Shaker, 20.

Driver Hatem Ali, 30, said: “Americans are racists and cowards, that’s what I understood from these pictures.” …

“These soldiers are being touted as the saviours of the Iraqi people and America claims to be the moral leader of the world, but they have been caught with their pants down, they have been exposed, the whole world sees them as they really are,” said Mahmoud Walid, a 28-year-old Egyptian writer.