IP: Cries of Holy War Echo in Mideast

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-attacks-muslim-prayers0921sep21.story?coll=sns%2Dap%2Dnationworld%2Dheadlines


By MARIAM FAM
Associated Press Writer

September 21, 2001, 10:47 AM EDT

CAIRO, Egypt -- Mosques in the Mideast rang with cries of holy wars and 
crusades Friday, as clerics and faithful looked to a coming U.S. war on 
terrorism that many worried loomed as nothing less than an attack on Islam.

Muslims crowded into mosques for Friday prayers with tensions about U.S. 
forces building in the Gulf. Words of support for the expected U.S. attacks 
on terror bases in Islamic nations were few, as clerics spoke of an assault 
that they feared would divide the Muslim world.

"The Muslim people are united, just like one body. They must stand by each 
other and support each other at all times," cleric Mussa Abu-Sweilem roared 
through a loudspeaker in Amman, Jordan, hitting a theme that sounded in 
mosque after mosque.

Muslims throughout the region seized on President Bush's declaration of the 
coming U.S. campaign against terrorism as a "crusade" -- a remark 
apologized for by the White House but not forgiven in the Muslim world.

"It is a war against Islam, even though the White House had apologized for 
Bush's statements of them being a crusade," cleric Sheik Maher Hammoud said 
in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.

<snip>



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