Hypocrites in the West Tell us Lies Robert Fisk 9th Nov 2001
Robert Fisk laments a war in which the world's poorest country is being battered by the richest. NZ Herald/Independent 9th Nov 2001

PESHAWAR "Air campaign"? "Coalition forces"? "War on terror"? How much longer must we go on enduring these lies? There is no "campaign" merely an air bombardment of the poorest and most broken country in the world by the world's richest and most sophisticated nation. No MiGs have taken to the skies to do battle with the American B-52s or F-18s. The only ammunition soaring into the air over Kabul comes from Russian antiaircraft guns manufactured around 1943. Coalition? Hands up who's seen the Luftwaffe in the skies over Kandahar, or the Italian Air Force or the French Air Force over Herat. Or even the Pakistani Air Force. The Americans are bombing Afghanistan with a few British missiles thrown in. "Coalition" indeed. . Then there's the "war on terror". When are we moving on to bomb the Jaffna Peninsula? Or Chechnya, which we have already left in Vladimir Putin's bloody hands? I even seem to recall a huge terrorist car bomb that exploded in Beirut in 1985, targeting Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, the spiritual inspiration to the Hizbollah who now appears to be back on Washington's hit list and which missed him but slaughtered 85 innocent Lebanese civilians. Years later, Carl Bernstein revealed in his book Veil that the CIA was behind the bomb after the Saudis agreed to finance the operation. So will US President George W. Bush be hunting down the CIA murderers involved? The hell he will. So why on earth are all my chums on CNN and Sky and the BBC rabbeting on about the "air campaign coalition forces" and the "war on terror"? Do they think their viewers believe this twaddle? Certainly Muslims don't. In fact, you don't have to spend long in Pakistan to realise that the Pakistani press gives an infinitely more truthful and balanced account of the "war" publishing work by local intellectuals, historians and opposition writers along with Taleban comments and pro-Government statements as well as syndicated Western analyses than the New York Times; and all this, remember, in a military dictatorship. You only have to spend a few weeks in the Middle East and the subcontinent to realise why Tony Blair's interviews on al-Jazeera and Larry King Live don't amount to a hill of beans. The Beirut daily As-Safir ran a widely praised editorial asking why an Arab who wanted to express the anger and humiliation of millions of other Arabs was forced to do so from a cave in a non-Arab country. The implication, of course, was that this rather Urn the crimes against hunianity on September 11 was the reason for America's determination to liquidate Osama bin lzden. Far more persuasive has been a series of articles in the Pakistani press on the outrageous treatment of Muslims arrested in the US in the aftermath of the September atrocities. One such article showd suffice. Headlined "Hate crane victim's diary", in the News of Lahore, it outlined the suffering of Hasnain Javed, who was arrested in Alabama on September 19 with an expired visa. In prison in Mississippi, he was beaten up by a prisoner who also broke his tooth. Then, long after he had sounded the warden's alarm bell, more men beat him against a wall with the words: "Hey bin Laden, this is the first round. There are going to be 10 rounds like this." There are dozens of other such stories in the Pakistani press and most of them appear to be true. Again, Muslims have been outraged by the hypocrisy of the West's supposed "respect" for Islam. We are not, so we have informed the world, going to suspend military operations in Afghanistan during the holy fasting month of Ramadan. After all, the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq conflict continued during Rainadan. So have Arab-Israeh conflicts. True enough. But why, then, did we make such a show of suspending bombing on the first Friday of the bombardment last month out of our "respect" for Islam? Because we were more respectrw then than now? Or because the Taleban remaining unbroken we've decided to forget about all that "respect"?

There is another disturbing argument I hear in Pakistan. If, as Bush claims, the attacks on New York and Washington were an assault on "civilisation", why shouldn't Muslims regard an attack on Afghanistan as a war on Islam? The Pakistanis swiftly spotted the hypocrisy of the Australians. While itching to get into the right against bin Laden, they have sent armed troops to force destitute Afghan refugees out of their territorial waters. The Aussies want to bomb Afghanistan but they don't want to save the Afghans. Pakistan, it should be added, hosts 2.5 million Afghan refugees. Needless to say, this discrepancy doesn't get much of an airing on our satellite channels. Indeed, I have never heard so much ftiry directed at journalists as I have in Pakistan these past few weeks. Nor arn I surprised. There were the disgraceful words of Walter Isaacson, the chair-man of CNN, to his staff. Showing the misery of Afghanistan ran the risk of promoting enemy propaganda, he said. "It seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in Afghanistan ... we must talk about how the Taleban are using civilian shields and how the Taleban have harboured the terrorists responsible for killing up to 5000 innocent people." These words will do more to damage the supposed impartiality of CNN than anything on the air in recent years. Perverse? Why perverse? Why are Afghan casualties so far down Isaacson's compassion list? Or is he just following the lead set down for him a few days earlier by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, who portentously announced to the Washington press corps that in times like these "people have to watch what they say and watch what they do". Needless to say, CNN has caved in to the US Govemment's demand not to broadcast bin Laden's words in toto lest they contain "coded messages". But the coded messages go out on television every hour. They are "air campaign", "coalition forces" and "war on terror". INDEPENDENT

Taleban Readies Suicide Squads Peter Popham Independent NZ Herald 9 Nov 2001

ISLAMABAD The Taleban is preparing to confront Allied ground troops in Afghanistan with a kamikaze-style suicide squad, say sources in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, near the Afghan border. Afghan as well as Arab fighters are being trained to carry out suicide attacks, says Harnid Nawaz, a Pakistani journalist with sources close to the Taleban. The squad of fidayeen lighters meaning those who are about to sacrifice themselves is being readied for action once the Allies have committed forces to a ground war. Members of the fidayeen squad have been spotted in several Talebancontrolled areas. The mastermind behind the unit is a shadowy Arab, originally from Morocco, with family connections to leaders of the Palestinian organisation Al Fatah. He has persuaded Taleban leaders, who have never previously favoured suicide operations, that the nines demand them. The last suicide mission inside Afghanistan was carried out on September 9, two days before the attacks on New York and Washington, but it was not the work of Afghans. Two Arabs posing as journalists blew up themselves and Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood, by means of a bomb hidden in their video camera. It emerged this week that they had hoped to wipe out the entire Northern Alliance leadership, but failed to persuade them to sit for a group photograph. The September 11 suicide attacks by terrorists believed to be operating on instructions from Osama bin Laden were also carried out by Arabs most of them Saudis. The new squad has a distinctive look. Its members carry Russian AK83 or German HK MP5 assault rifles rather than the Taleban's standard issue AK-47s. They also wear strips on their chests embroidered with verses from the Koran. No Afghans have been involved in suicide operations because the Hanafi school of Islam, to which most Taleban members subscribe, forbid it. The rival Hanbali school believes such attacks are permissible in emergencies, hence the Hamas an d Islamic Jihad fighters who blow themselves up in Israeli pizza parlours and discotheques, and the Kashmiri fidayeen squads who fight their way into Indian Army installations in Kashmir and wreak as much havoc as they can before they are shot dead. The overwhelming military might of the United States and its allies seems to have persuaded the Taleban to permit suicide attacks. The leaders of the September 11 attacks appear to have followed the pattern of Japan's Second World War kamikaze pilots, who steeled themselves for death with the help of strong drink and barbiturates, and allowed young women to throw. themselves upon them on the eve of operations. The Allies may draw heart from the fact that the Japanese only adopted kamikaze tactics in January 1945, when defeat stared them in the face. But it adds one more menace for, ground troops to overcome in the world's most daunting battlefield. INDEPENDENT

Special Dispatch - Jihad and Terrorism Studies November 7, 2001, No. 297

Terror in America (24)

Anthrax should be put into America's drinking water Hamas Weekly: 7 Nov 2001

In his weekly op-ed, Dr. 'Atallah Abu Al-Subh, a columnist for the Hamas(1) weekly Al-Risala (Gaza), writes open letters to prominent figures, ideologies, and events. His most recent letter, No. 163, was titled "To Anthrax":

"The truth is that I wondered how to begin! Should I greet you [i.e. anthrax], or should I curse you? Should I hold my tongue?... I will begin by saying: Oh Anthrax, despite your wretchedness, you have sown horror in the heart of the lady of arrogance, of tyranny, of boastfulness! Your gentle touch has made the U.S.'s life rough and pointless. You have filled the lady who horrifies and terrorizes the world with fear, and her feet almost fail to bear [her weight] in horror and fear of you. Because of you, she has lost confidence in the moment in which she lives, or in which she will live."

"You have entered the most fortified of places; [you have entered] the White House and they left it like horrified mice. Up until a short time ago, this place was the address of the power of brutality, or of the brutality of power! Verily, the owner of that house said, 'Woe to any who dare even to glance at it with a hint of rage - but you have turned all this into vanity, weakness, and wretchedness.'"

"By Allah, are you really so deadly?! Do you not fear America's intercontinental missiles? Do you not fear the torpedo missiles with nuclear warheads, and cluster bombs? Do you not fear the Swift Sword [Omani-British wargames] that Britain drew forth from its scabbard to stab into the heart of our honor in Muscat [Oman's capital], with the agreement of the great sultan, who had no shame in carrying out such a deed? Do you not fear the lady of terror's destroyers, that cross the Suez canal...?"

"The Pentagon was a monster before you entered its corridors... And behold, it now transpires that its men are of paper and its commanders are of cardboard, and they hasten to flee as soon as they see - only see - chalk dust! There are those who think that I exaggerate, but I do not think so. This horror that you have sown - you, the delicate, the uncomplicated, the miserable - in the heart of the bloodsucker [the U.S.]... makes me think as I do. You do not come like a storm, but they see you as one; a terrible storm that destroys everything. They run from you in all directions and their tongues mumble, 'My life, my life.' Our hearts, repressed, exiled, and oppressed, were filled with belief that Allah is capable of defeating America by means of the weakest of his earthly soldiers, after he used you to sow horror in their hearts..."

"I swear that your story is peculiar. The Americans see you as an imminent attack that is about to shake the lady with the proboscises that suck the blood of the peoples... All [the rulers of Arab and Islamic countries] tell [the U.S.] - every time she farts, - "Allah bless you" - Nevertheless, you have found your way to only eight American breasts so far..."

"You make the U.S. appease us, and hint to us at a rosy future and a life of ease... through a [new] Marshall Plan. Why? Because of our beautiful eyes? Or out of fear that we will turn into anthrax, and harm the apple of [the U.S.'s] eye and heart, Tel Aviv...? Without permission, you enter the halls of their courthouses, as if you intended to push the symbols of their sovereignty into the mud of worry and fear..."

"In sound mind, I thank you and confess that I like you, I like you very much. May you continue to advance, to permeate, and to spread. If I may give you a word of advice, enter the air of those 'symbols,' the water faucets from which they drink, and the pens with which they draft their traps and conspiracies against the wretched peoples... Turn the bodies of the tyrants into matches burning slowly and gradually, so that they understand that the truth belongs to Allah and that they should give those entitled to rights their rights."

"Then, and only then, will you return to your place... I hope that we only hear about you when you enter the body of every base man among the arrogant and their agents. Do not enter the bodies of the wretched, like that aging nurse. Peace be upon the oppressed."(2)

Endnotes:

(1)As of November 2, 2001 Hamas was added to Executive Order 13224 which "provides the [the U.S the] authority to act against individuals and organizations that associate with the named [Hamas] terrorist groups." (2) Al-Risala (Palestinian Authority), November 1, 2001.

Truth About Jihad Munir El-Kassem 5 Nov 2001

Email: "Dr. Munir El-Kassem" <drkassem@uwo.ca Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 15:38:46 -0500 TEXT:

Salamu Alaikum Wa Rahmat Allahi Wa Barakatu,

Attached is an article that I have written for the London Free Press [Canada] on the subject of Jihad.

Munir Abu Muhammad El-Kassem

Last Friday, I started my Khutbah (sermon) by asking the congregation a politically incorrect question. I said: "What will your response be if I call upon you to perform Jihad?" Almost instantaneously, I got the full attention of the congregation.

Fearing that my question might have hit too hard, I did not pause for too long before I started to explain myself.

Jihad, I said, has been blacklisted because of a historical aberration. Toward the end of the eleventh century, the Crusaders launched their holy war to rid the world of "Muslim infidels." Never used before to indicate war, Jihad was declared as a counter measure to the war launched by the crusaders. This started the unholy alliance between Jihad and war. With time, the concept of Jihad became more and more distorted, so much so that the original meaning was totally forgotten except by academics and religious scholars.

For 13 years in Mecca, in the early days of the message, Muslims did not have to defend themselves against any form of collective aggression. In fact, the first battle they had to fight was in the second year after migration to Medina. Yet we find clear references to Jihad in many Koranic verses that were revealed during the Meccan period. One such verse is "Do not obey the non-believers, and use the (convincing arguments of the Koran) in an (effort) to gain their hearts" (25:52). The original word in the text closely translated as "effort" is indeed the word "Jihad".

Jihad in its pure form means exerting an effort or undergoing a struggle to achieve a favourable result. Jihad is manifested at three levels. The first and most important level is that of the inner self. Prophet Mohammad was once asked about the most important form of Jihad. He was reported to have said: "The best Jihad one performs is that of helping oneself gain more knowledge of Almighty God."

The second level of Jihad is manifested through enjoining good and forbidding evil. This is an important aspect of the life of every Muslim. In essence, a Muslim has to perform Jihad constantly because no one can afford to live in isolation without interacting with others. In this respect, Prophet Mohammad was reported to have said: "An appreciated form of Jihad is to utter the truth in the presence of an oppressive ruler."

From a historical perspective, the allowance to fight back in defence of the newly established Muslim community, the third level of Jihad, was given through a Koranic injunction revealed fifteen years after Prophet Mohammad started to preach Islam: "Sanction to fight back is given unto those who have been wronged; and God is most capable to grant them victory. Those who have been unjustly driven out of their homes for saying nothing other than that: Our Lord is God." (22: 39-40)

Trying to put things in proper perspective, after returning from a battle field, Prophet Mohammad addressed his companions saying: "We are now returning from the minor form of Jihad to the major form of Jihad i.e. struggle of the inner self."

According to Islamic rules, fighting as a form of Jihad is permissible in defence of five things: life, property, faith, geographic and socio-economic integrity of the Ummah (Muslim Community) and dignity and honour of the Ummah. Offensive fighting for the purpose of forcing others to accept Islam, or to dominate and oppress another country or people is prohibited in Islam. It is noteworthy that countries with the largest population of Muslims, like Indonesia and Malaysia, received Islam by falling in love with the values and principles upheld by Muslim traders.

It is important to note that Muslim historians never referred to the battles of the Prophet as wars. Rather, they were called ghazawat meaning single battles. They were aimed at defending the integrity of the Young Muslim community of Medina.

In his book: "Islam: Faith and Practice", Muslim scholar Mahmoud Ayoub states: "War is most often undertaken purely for worldly gain. It is not the good or bad intentions of the enemy which determine the cause and purpose of war, but his wealth, political ideology or the strategic importance of his geographical location. War is fought to be won regardless of the suffering and death it inflicts on the so-called enemy." The Koran aimed at disciplining Muslims to investigate the need for fighting and whether it is justified or not: "O you who have faith, when you go forth in the way of God investigate matters, and do not say to him who offers you peace: 'You are not a man of faith.'" (4:94)

Islam further enjoined upon the people of faith to observe strict rules when fighting an enemy: "Fight in the way of God those who fight against you. But do not transgress, for God loves not the transgressors (2:190). "Fight against them in order that there be no sedition (fitna), and that religion belong solely to God. Yet if they desist, there should be no hostility except towards the wrongdoers (2:193).

Armed Jihad, as one can see, is not a form of terrorism. It is not a free ticket to launch war on innocent people. One should not get information on such honourable acts from sensational media reports. I hope that a day will come when truth seekers will not be swayed by attempts to distort the truth. I also hope that next time I call upon my congregation to perform Jihad, I will not be a target of interrogation by CSIS or the RCMP.

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Where is Osama Bin Laden hiding? Amir Taheri 8 Nov 2001

ARABNEWS.com

SAUDI ARABIA'S FIRST ENGLISH LANGUAGE DAILY Thursday, November 08, 2001

By Amir Taheri, Arab News Staff

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=10189

Donald Rumsfeld, the United States' Secretary of Defense, says that finding Bin Laden is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Leaving aside rumors that he has fled to his ancestral homeland of Hadhramaut, experts agree that the fugitive is somewhere in Afghanistan.

But where? To be safe he must be somewhere under the control of his ally Mullah Muhammad Omar, the Taleban leader.

Nominally, the mullah controls almost 80 percent of the country. In reality, however, his forces hold only 11 of the 30 provinces. Ten other provinces are controlled by warlords who have sworn allegiance to him but who may betray him for money.

The opposition Northern Alliance controls five provinces. The remaining provinces are battlegrounds between the Taleban and a variety of opponents, including the Hazara backed by Iran.

In his hiding place Bin Laden would look for three things.

The first is inaccessibility by American troops and Afghan enemies looking for him. The second is the friendship or at least neutrality of the local population. The third is the possibility of easy exit into another safe haven.

Those conditions exclude almost 80 percent of the Afghan territory. There are inaccessible places around the Paropamissus range in the northwest and in the Hindu Kush range in the east. But most of these areas are controlled either by anti-Taleban groups or by unreliable warlords.

Almost half of Mullah Omar's domains border Iran, a country hostile to Bin Laden and thus not a safe haven. In other Taleban-held provinces the local population, mostly Hazaras, Uzbeks or Tajiks, would have no love lost for the fugitive. After all, he organized the murder of their chief Ahmad Shah Masood on Sept. 9).

That narrows down the choice to just two provinces, Paktia and Paktika, roughly five percent of Afghan territory.

The two provinces, in the southeast bordering Pakistan, offer plenty of hiding places in the Safed Kuh range with its world famous collection of almost 3000 caves. The two provinces also border on the areas of Pakistan controlled not by Islamabad, but by the tribes of the Afridi confederation. Several Arab "Afghans" have set up mini-emirates in the no-man's land between Pakistan and Afghanistan since the mid-1980s. Most have been linked with Bin Laden since the mid-1980s. If need be, they could hide him for years.

And if flushed out of there, Bin Laden could simply cross into Pakistan where he has countless supporters, including among the military and intelligence services. Pakistan is the only neighbor of Afghanistan where Bin Laden would not risk being handed over to the Americans.

Paktia and Paktika offer yet another advantage. The local population is friendly to Bin Laden. He has invested in the region for years to build Qur'anic schools, clinics and village bathhouses. The two provinces lie halfway between Jalalabad and Kandahar. The first city is controlled by Jalaleddin Haqqani, a long-time friend of Bin Laden; the second is the capital of Mullah Omar.

There is one other, perhaps more important, reason why Bin Laden would want to hide in Paktia or Paktika. This is the area of Afghanistan that he knows best. He built his first bases there, complete with underground bunkers and well-equipped command centers in caves. Until 1998 at least, he also had a villa in Gardeyz where part of his family lived. He also has a house in Zareh Sharan.

Ahmad-Wali Masood, an anti-Taleban Afghan diplomat, says that Bin Laden has at least four look-alikes, or dummies, who keep moving in many different places to sow confusion about the fugitive's exact whereabouts.

Most of our Afghan sources, however, agree that Bin Laden's hiding place will be either in Paktia or Paktika. He may not be there now but he is sure to end up there once the Taleban have been flushed out of other provinces.

Some even claim that Bin Laden's principal hiding place is a string of caves in Paktika to the southeast of Shab-Juy, in a village called Changeh. American, French and Iranian geologists who worked in Afghanistan for years claim that they recognize the Paktika caves from the background of videos broadcast by the Arab TV channel Al-Jazeera.

Only the house number is not mentioned. Well, house-caves have no numbers.

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Link Between Bin Laden & Worldwide Christian Persecution? http://www.goodnewsmag.com/november/society.htm

COSTA MESA, Calif. (EP) - One of the world's leading authorities on religious persecution sees a connection between the Osama bin Laden terror network and persecution directed against Christians around the world.

"He's tied in with a lot of persecution," Dr. Paul Marshall told ASSIST News Service. Marshall, the British-born author of Their Blood Cries Out, and a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington D.C., continued, "In many settings it's radicals within his network who are carrying out persecution. This is going on in the Philippines, Indonesia, and to some extent Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan - and of course, Afghanistan."

Marshall told ASSIST's senior correspondent Mark Ellis that bin Laden is allied with terrorist groups in Algeria and Nigeria that have been killing Christians. "Bin Laden's had a lot of cooperation with Sudan - a major country in the world killing Christians," Marshall says. "The death toll in Sudan since 1998 is two million; that is more than every war in the Middle East in this past century. Most of these victims are Christians."

Marshall describes bin Laden as the figurehead of a far-reaching organization with little hierarchical structure. "If Osama bin Laden drops dead tomorrow, the situation has hardly changed," he says. "Zawahiri would take over - and he's probably worse." (Egyptian doctor Ayman al-Zawahiri is bin Laden's top lieutenant.)

The exact nature of bin Laden's involvement with worldwide persecution of Christians by Muslims is uncertain, admits Marshall. "It's not as if an order comes down from Kabul or Kandahar to Indonesia to go out and attack these people. They are allied; they have common goals - it's not top-down."

Even Muslim nations with no ties to bin Laden persecute Christians, says Marshall. "You get persecution in the Islamic world apart from bin Laden. Most notable is the Saudis - who are his enemy number one. They have arrested 15 Christians in the last two months. In the last week, they have tortured at least three of them."

"America is only beginning to share the experience of nations around the world where persecution at the hands of Islamic radicals is the norm," Marshall says. "In Kaduna, Nigeria, over 5,000 people have been killed since the imposition of Islamic law. In Pakistan in 1997 the city of Shantinagar was leveled - razed - a city of 20,000 people. The death toll in Ambon, Indonesia is 5,000 to 6,000. The worst is Susan, where an estimated 2 million have been killed by militant Muslims."

"This is a great evil and we can fight it and reduce it," Marshall says. "But we can no more end all persecution than we can end all terrorism... It should also be a wake-up call for Christians. Be informed and pray. No congregation in America should meet without praying for the persecuted church."

In related stories:

The foreign aid workers being held in Afghanistan on charges of preaching Christianity seem to have survived the initial attacks on the country. Family and friends of Australians Diana Thomas and Peter Bunch said they've heard from an attorney for the aid workers that they seem to be well. The two Australians are being held along with four Germans and two Americans. The eight worked with the German-based organization Shelter Now. The Taliban offered to free the aid workers if the U.S. stopped its "massive propaganda campaign," but President George W. Bush rejected the offer.

The Taliban's supreme spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, is reportedly telling his followers that the United States plans to overthrow the Taliban government and install Afghanistan's former king in order to promote Christianity in the country. In a speech carried on Taliban radio, Omar said the king "wants to come to Afghanistan as a puppet so that he can preach Christianity in Afghanistan."

Muslim religious leaders in Pakistan reportedly issued a fatwa, promising that two Pakistani Christians will be killed for every Muslim who dies during American strikes on Afghanistan. Persecution of Christians in Pakistan continues. Beatings of Christians by Muslim mobs, and the burning and vandalizing of churches and a Christian school are reported.

Muhhiddin Kabiri, deputy head of Tajikistan's Islamic Revival party, says his party does not oppose U.S. action against genuine terrorists. Kabiri told Keston News Service, "We condemn the acts of terrorism in the United States and sympathize with the Americans." He warned, however, that the campaign against terrorism must not become a campaign against Islam. "We will only support the United States if the battle is against genuine terrorists," he said. "It is exceptionally important that the revenge action now underway should not become a campaign against Muslims."

A spokesman for terrorist leader Osama bin Laden renewed his call for a holy war against U.S. interests. "America must know that the storm of airplanes will not stop and there are thousands of young people who look forward to death like the Americans look forward to life," said Sulaiman Abu Ghaith. He added, "Holy struggle is a religious duty for every Muslim. This battle is a decisive battle between atheism and faith."

A surge in heroin shipments may help fund the Taliban's war effort, according to the Miami Herald. Afghanistan's farmers are a major source of opium poppies, and U.S. officials believe Afghanistan's Islamic government is dumping huge stockpiles of opium and heroin to gather money for their military.

The White House continues to struggle to keep Arab and Muslim nations in its coalition against terrorism. Many Muslim nations claim to oppose terrorism, but have spoken out against any U.S. effort to bring down Muslim governments that promote terrorist attacks. Bush has continued to send the message, "The United States of America is a friend to the Afghan people, and we are the friends of almost a billion worldwide who practice the Islamic faith."

A United Methodist church in Flower Mound, Texas, created a "Field of Remembrance" to honor those who died in the Sept. 11 attack. Members of Trietsch Memorial United Methodist Church planted more than 5,000 white wooden crosses, each one in remembrance of someone killed in the attack. The crosses will remain at least through Thanksgiving as a way to make the number of fatalities visual and realistic, according to John Thompson, the church's projects coordinator.

Rescue workers at the former site of the World Trade Center are turning to a cast iron "cross" found in the wreckage as a symbol of faith. The 20-foot tall cross, made up of two metal beams, fell intact from one of the twin towers into a nearby building. Worker Frank Silecchia, 47, found the cross standing almost upright on Sept. 13. "Some people will say it's velocity or physics that put it there. To me it's an act of God," he said. Rescue workers gather at the cross to pray or meditate. Workers recently hoisted the cross onto a 40-foot foundation, which was formerly a pedestrian walkway, then stood by as the Rev. Brian Jordan consecrated the symbol, saying, "Behold the glory of the cross at ground zero. This is our symbol of hope, our symbol of faith, our symbol of healing."

Taleban leader "big plan to destroy US" 15 Nov 2001 BBC

Taleban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar has rejected any cooperation with a future broad-based government for Afghanistan.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC's Pashtu-language service, he said the southern city of Kandahar remained in the hands of Taleban fighters.

He also spoke of a "big" plan to destroy the United States which could happen within a short period of time.

His statement came as the UN Security Council unanimously endorsed a resolution sponsored by Britain and France, backing a plan for the country's political future drawn up by the senior UN envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

As the Northern Alliance continued to extend the area under their control, the United States said it had bombed a building being used by members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

An official said the building was destroyed and a number of people were killed.

'Evil government'

Under the UN-endorsed plan, Mr Brahimi wants to convene a meeting of all Afghan factions within the next few days, and establish a multi-national security force.

Click here for map of the battlegrounds

The Northern Alliance has said it will not set up an interim government, but will simply run Kabul until talks can be held.

A high military council led by Defence Minister General Fahim Khan has assumed leadership in the capital.

"The council has invited and is ready to receive the delegates of the people who are either abroad or at home to come as soon as possible to Kabul for forming the government through whatever way they wish," said Alliance spokesman Mohammed Habeel.

But Mullah Omar told the BBC that the Taleban preferred death to participating in what he said would be an evil government.

He said: "We would prefer death to the government of fascists."

He also said a plan for the "destruction of America" was going ahead.

"The current situation in Afghanistan is related to a bigger cause - that is the destruction of America...

"The plan is going ahead and God willing it is being implemented, but it is a huge task beyond the will and comprehension of human beings.

"If God's help is with us this will happen within a short period of time.

"Keep in mind this prediction."

Asked about the setbacks suffered by the Taleban, he said it was not important how many provinces in Afghanistan were now under his control, because territory could be lost and regained.

"Four to five provinces are still in our control," he said.

"But it makes no difference if we control one, two or 20 provinces.

"Once we did not even have a single province, but later we captured all the provinces. We have lost the captured provinces but it makes no difference."

Mullah Omar said the struggle for a broad-based government had been going on for the last 20 years, but nothing had come of it.

Nuclear plans

The Times newspaper reported on Thursday that a Kabul house abandoned by members of Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network contained evidence of plans for nuclear weapons.

The newspaper reported that the partially-burnt plans contained bomb-making instructions, as well as studies of chemical and nuclear devices.

There were also reportedly studies of Western armaments.

Skinning Alive in Bamiyan - Taleban Atrocities and the Fall of Konduz
NZ Herald 23 Nov 2001

The two most senior commanders of the Taleban in the town of Kunduz have been linked to one of the worst massacres that took place under the Taleban, during which which a 16-year-old boy was skimmed alive. And a close ally of bin Laden, a Chechen warlord with a reputation for cutting the throats of Russian prisoners in public has led the 1000 besieged al Quaeda fighters.

The Russians have accused the warlord, Omar al-Khatab, of triggering the 1999 war in Chechnya by invading the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan. He is an ethnic Arab of Saudi and Jordanian descent, and is known for using car bombs. When Faizil went to Mazar-i-sharif to meet the alliance's Uzbek warlord, General Rashid Dostum, to negotiate surrender, he travelled with al-Khatab and Mullah Daudullah, say Dostum's people. But Faizil and Daudullah are far from blameless, as the ruins of the Afghan town Yakaolang testify. In January this year, at least 178 people were tortured and killed by .Taleban forces in Yakaolang, a district of Bamiyan province, according to a 55-page report, including witness accounts, prepared by the United Nations. One of the victims was a 16-year-old boy skinned alive "from head to chest". His body was dumped behind the offices of the British charity Oxfam. Witnesses interviewed by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan describe unarmed civilians being lined up and their hands tied. They were then shot in the back. Many were apparently killed by foreign fighters, possibly members of al Qaeda. Arab fighters carried long knives used for slitting throats and skinning victims, the witnesses said. Faizil is named in the UN report as the man in command of the massacre. The report also says that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taleban's supreme leader, was in constant contact by radio with Taleban forces in Yakaolang while the massacres were being carried out. Daudallah, the next most senior Taleban in Kunduz, has also been accused of involvement in atrocities at Yakaolang. Human Rights Watch says he is known to have been in command of Taleban troops who committed a second "mopping-up operation" only, six months later. Then Taleban forces returned to the town and burnt it to the'ground. Daudullah's forces then,went on the rampage through Bamiyan province, burning the tents of refugees who had fled into the mountains, and killing even the elderly who had stayed behind. Most were Shia Muslims. The Taleban are Sunnis. INDEPENDENT, REUTERS

Conference Calls for Global Islamic State NZ Herald 9 Aug 1994

London A conference of 8000 Muslims in London yesterday backed calls by its organisers for the establishment of a single global Islamic state and the demolition of the state of Israel. Some speakers called for the overthrow of Saudi Arabia and Iraq on grounds that political opposition was not allowed there. The conference at Wembley arena was organised by the Muslim Unity Organisation, which represents Muslim groups from around the world devoted to achieving a unified Muslim state. One speaker, identified only as Dr Mohammad Malkawi, told the conference: "Islam is a supreme system. It will exist on its own." He said Muslim rule could not co-exist with any other system such as socialism, capitalism or democracy. A series of resolutions announced by the organisers at the end of the conference included one stating, "All regimes in the Islamic world have no legitimacy in Islamic law." Another declared that "there is no peace for the state of Israel until the state of Israel is demolished" and called all negotiations and agreements with Israel illegal. Another resolution announced by the organisers condemned international organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the international Monetary Fund as "tools in the hands of the superpowers and unacceptable in Islam." The audience backed the resolutions with cheers. Participants stood up from their seats, raising their fists, stamping their feet and shouting "God is great."

Reporters were barred from interviewing delegates, and television crews and press photographers were allowed only briefly into the conference. The BBC described it as one of the biggest gatherings of Muslims held outside the Middle East, with speakers from countries as far apart as Pakistan and Bosnia. News reports described those listening to them as mostly young British Muslims, most of whom are of Asian descent.

The Guardian newspaper quoted an unnamed speaker from Pakistan as telling the conference, "Yes, we are fundamentalists. We can't make any compromises and bargains when it comes to Islam. "But we are not terrorists and must do our duty to establish the global domination of the Khalafah" - a global Islamic state not based on nationalism. Dr Malkawi drew thunderous applause when he accused Muslim governments of sacrificing the goals of Islam in the interests of political stability. "Stability means keeping the tyrants in place," said Dr Malkawi, from Jordan. "Our agenda is to build an Islamic state that would resolve all the problems as Islam dictates." Dr Malkawi did not say Which states he considered run by tyrants but his rhetoric was typical of fundamentalist attacks on the wealthy Gulf States and Saudi Arabia.

Dr Malkawi accused Middle Eastern governments of subservience to Britain, the United States and France and lashed out at the media for equating Islamic fundamentalists with terrorists. "This is a war against Islam," he said.

Before the conference began, some local council members and Jewish community leaders in London had called for it to be cancelled because of ihe participation of a group called Hizb ut- Tahrir. The group, whose name means Party of Liberation, in the past has circulated leaflets among students in London calling for the death of Israeli Jews and the destruction of Israel. Tension has been high among London's Jewish community after the bombing of the Israeli Embassy on July 26 and the bombing of a Jewish charity building the following day. Israel has blamed the two bombings, which injured.a total of 19 people, on Islamic extremists opposed to Middle East peace moves. Hizb ut-Tahrir avoided creating any further controversy over the issue during the conference and its spokesman, Mr Farid Kassim, accused sections of the British media of portraying Hizb ut- Tahrir in a bad light. The police broke up a demon, stration by placard-waving homosexual rights campaigners at Wembley. "Islamic bigots bum queers alive," read one placard. In an editorial headlined "The Enemies Within" the Sunday Telegraph wamed of the threat posed by Islamic milltants. "They have no right to come to this country and try to subvert it, or its friends and neighbours" Meanwhile, the police fanned out across Paris after Algerian fundamentalists threatened reprisals if France failed to free 17 suspected Muslim militants it is detaining under heavy guard. Some 3000 people were stopped on the streets of the capital and 51 were taken in for questioning, a police official said.

France earlier dismissed a demand by the military wing of the Islamic salvation Front (FIS) to free 17 Muslims seized following last Thursday's guerrilla, attack on a French embassy housing compound in Algiers in which seven French officials were killed. The militant Algerian Armed Islamic Group, which claimed responsibility for the attack, wamed Algerian students and teachers to stay away from schools and universities and said any that stayed open would be blown up or burned down.