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| The Alliance |
| Samiul Haq warns US |
| 2001-09-24 |
"The United States should think a thousand times before attacking Afghanistan," said Maulana Sami ul-Haq, rector of Haqqania. "Religious fervor is something that can't be assessed beforehand. If America attacks, then jihad becomes an obligation, and then there is no saying what will happen." "Oh Allah, defeat the enemies of Muslims and make Islam and the Taliban victorious over the Americans," an all-boy class of 12-year-olds prays before beginning a lesson on the Quran, Islam's holy book. Fired by a conviction that Islam must be defended, older students at the Haqqania school — and thousands like it across Pakistan — are ready recruits for the Taliban in a "jihad," or holy war, against the United States. "The only thing we talk about these days is whether America will attack," said Syed Samiullah, 24, a student at the school, located in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province that borders Afghanistan. "I am ready for jihad, and so is every student you talk to at the school," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |