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US raids on Afghanistan war against Islam: Muslim clerics

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

Flaying the Organisation of Islamic Conference for virtually giving a nod to the Unites States action in Afghanistan, Muslim clerics in Lucknow have given a call to all members of the community to unitedly condemn the attacks.

Bulk of the clerics at a meet in Lucknow said the much-touted 'war against terrorism' and the 'manhunt for Osama Bin Laden' is actually a well thought out 'war against Islam'.

The common refrain was that the US was targeting Muslims.

It also criticised the Indian government's decision to deviate from its traditional non-aligned stand by offering support to the US.

The meet also drew a consensus on the formation of an all India body of Muslim clerics to be called Majlis-e-Ulema.

"Such a body would help evolve a common strategy on the question of US attack on Taleban and the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden," the meet decided.

The meet also called upon all Muslims to boycott Coke and Pepsi as a mark of protest against the American strikes.

Prominent among the clerics who attended the meeting were the widely revered Shia scholar, Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, who is also the vice president of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, his nephew Maulana Kalbe Jawaad, who commands a large following among the Shia youth.

Among the Sunni Maulanas present at the hurriedly convened meet were Maulana Sajjad Nomani, the chief of All India Milli Council, Maulana Burhanuddin Sambhali, the Mufti of Nadwa-tul-Ulema, the leading internationally acclaimed Islamic centre for learning, Maulana Ateeq Bastavi, member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board and Fazlur Rehman Waizi, the Imam of Lucknow's prominent Tile-wali-Masjid.

But the meet did not give a clean chit to either Laden or the US.

"It was time for all of us to remain alert, and not get carried away by propaganda aimed only at vitiating the communal environment in the country," the Maulana cautioned.

Equating the current situation in India to a 'live bomb', the Muslim Personal Law Board vice president called upon the Muslim masses to 'do everything possible to defuse the bomb'.

Nomani, who remained the most vocal of the Maulanas present, gave his reasons for shunning Coke and Pepsi.

He narrated how McDonald's lost 27 per cent of its sales in UK when an Ulema gave a call against consumption of McDonald's products for Roza Iftar during the month of Ramzan last year.

"If a local Ulema's objection could lead the large chunk of Muslims to give it up promptly, then there is no reason why our call for giving up Coke and Pepsi would not give a blow to their sales," Nomani pointed out.

Most of the speakers expressed deep concern over what they termed as the 'simmering resentment against the Muslim youth, against the US action'.

Barring Maulana Kalbe Sadiq, who declined to accept Laden's call for jihad, most of the other clerics seemed to agree that the US action amounted to a war against Islam.

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