Cairo, Egypt ? Muslims spat on the American flag, threw tomatoes at a picture of President Bush and burned the U.S. Constitution in protests Friday from Iraq to Indonesia over the alleged desecration of Islam’s holy book at Guantanamo Bay prison.

Waving copies of the Quran, many of the thousands of demonstrators across the Middle East and Asia chanted anti-American slogans and demanded an apology from the United States, as well as punishment for those who treated the book with disrespect at the U.S. lockup.

U.S. investigators admitted Thursday there was mishandling of the Quran but contend it was mostly inadvertent and deny that one had been put in a toilet. Friday’s protests were organized before the officials’ comments in Washington.

Many Muslims were outraged earlier this month when Newsweek reported interrogators at the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, flushed a Quran down the toilet to get inmates to talk. The story – later retracted – sparked deadly riots in Afghanistan.

“The defilement of our holy book is outrageous because we consider it to be the word of God,” said Asiya Andrabi, head of the Daughters of the Community and one of about 50 women clad in black Islamic veils who marched through Srinagar, India.

Some marchers burned symbolic copies of the U.S. Constitution and the American flag, and school and offices were closed for the demonstration in Srinagar.

Later, police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of men who gathered outside a mosque.