Although condemning the assaults on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a leading imam said Washington was rushing to judgment in naming Saudi-born dissident Osama bin Laden as the mastermind and threatening to attack Afghanistan if it did not hand over bin Laden and his followers.
"It is injustice. It is a war of aggression," said Sheikh Mohammad Gemeaha, the imam at the Islamic Cultural Center, one of the largest mosques in New York.
He said the "perpetrators of last week's horrendous event must be punished" but also opposed any military response that would lead to the deaths of more innocent victims.
"Americans haven't woken up yet to who the real criminals are," he told reporters without elaborating after reading a sermon at Friday prayers. Gemeaha added that Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement had the right to defend itself if attacked.
"There is a difference between launching a war and defending themselves. Every responsible nation has the right to defend itself and its people," he said.
In a speech before a joint session of Congress on Thursday, President George W. Bush warned the Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden and his followers or "share in their fate" as U.S. forces prepare to strike back.
GOVERNMENTS PUT ON NOTICE
Bush also made clear he expected cooperation from governments across the world in his campaign against the al Qaeda organization of religious militants.
"Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," he said.
Bush's decision to threaten the Taliban and extend his anti-terrorism campaign beyond al Qaeda has raised concern he could antagonize Arab and other Muslim nations.
The Taliban called Friday for Washington to provide proof that bin Laden directed last week's attacks, a request flatly rejected by the White House.
Bush has stressed that no one should attack or show disrespect to America's own Muslims and Arabs, but Gemeaha said Friday such attacks had already begun.
"Unfortunately, although many Arabs and Muslims also died in the towering inferno that used to be the World Trade Center, their families and friends and all Arabs and Muslims in every part of our country are now the targets of increasing acts of violence, and of personal attacks," he said.
Some Muslims in New York said after Bush's speech they were worried about a further polarization between Muslims and non-Muslims both at home and abroad.
"What is dangerous is that Muslims are one family. If you hurt one, you hurt them all. If you hurt one, others will come to their defense," said Hassan Abdul-Rahim, a retired New York policeman and now a security officer at the Islamic Cultural Center.
"If they attack (Afghanistan) and innocent civilians are killed, like they did in Iraq, you are going to see a lot of problems," he said.
(With additional reporting by Manuela Badawy) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I for one....am sick and tired of all this sensitivity training. I have yet to see a sizable presence of Muslims take to the airwaves or the streets to proclaim their patriotism and denounce these Islamists. We all hear much much more complaining about "how they don't feel safe" or all this PC hatred claptrap.
I've spent a lot of time around Muslims from all over the world. Honestly, many of them and especially the Middle Eastern and Balkans variety are quite sympathetic to the extremists because they share similar views on what they percieve as American hegemony and of course our support for Israel.
If we wish to win this "war", we are going to have to take strong measures here at home that will make libertarains go beserk.
Pissed off black Americans supporting these enemies of our country????....what a suprise...after listening to their vitriol unencumbered for 10 years and now ...suprise suprise...they've allied themselves with folks willing to kill thousands of our fellow countrymen. They need a reckoning as well.
Meanwhile today in Kosovo, how many Serbs have we killed or helped kill on behalf of our Muslim brethren?
It all makes me sick. I could blame 8 years of Clinton's immigration policies designed to beef up Democrat voting blocs but it goes way past that. The enemy is not at the gates...he's in the gate!!!
This is one hell of a bigass fifth column here folks.
Thanks for this disturbing FYI. I hope our President understands this and most of his PC public relations yapping is mostly window dressing but I fear that so far it is otherwise. After the "most likely next attack" hopefully, they will all wake up.
regards