|
Surprise! Pak clerics call for 'jihad' against U.S.
Pakistan's 14 leading Islamic clerics yesterday urged a "jihad," or holy war, against the United States following its invasion of Iraq and said that there was no need for a fresh Islamic edict to wage a fight against Americans and their allies. "A war between America and Muslims has been declared several years ago," the clerics said in a joint statement. "The war has intensified after President Bush declaration of a 'crusade' in the wake of September 11 events," they said. They either don't listen well, or only hear what they want to hear. Guess which... The clerics included the most prominent pro-Afghan Taliban cleric Maulana Mufti Nizamuddin Shamzai. Also on the list of prominent clerics were Dr. Abdul Razzaq Sikander who heads the Islamic seminary of Binori Town — one of the biggest and most influential religious schools not just in the port city of Karachi, but in the country. All the clerics belong to the hardline Deobandi school of thought. They run one of the biggest chain of Islamic schools in the country and many of the Taliban leaders were their students. They are ideological gurus of the two factions of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, the two key component parties of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal which dominates the North West Frontier Province and Balochistan province which border Afghanistan. Key militant groups including the outlawed Harkat-ul Mujahedeen, the Jaish-e-Mohammed and Sipah Sahaba Pakistan consider Shamzai, who is believed to have ties with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and Osama bin Laden, their spiritual leader. That's pretty much the entire Pak jihadi structure, with the exception of Lashkar e-Taiba. Almost everything else is pick-up teams... The clerics said jihad had become mandatory on more than 1.2 billion Muslims. "They have to participate in the jihad according to their capacity. This has become mandatory against America, its allies and the Muslim rulers" who are siding with Washington, they said in a statement. "Those who keep a soft corner for America compared to Saddam Hussein, or think that it is not a war of Islam, they are wrong," they said. The United States has used "Saddam as an excuse to attack Iraq." Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-03-25 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=11855 |