http://www.boston.com/dailynews/101/world/Osama_bin_Laden_urges_next_gen:.shtml

Osama bin Laden urges next generation to prepare for holy war

By Kathy Gannon, Associated Press, 4/11/2001 09:50

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) Warning that Muslims worldwide are under siege by a corrupted West, Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden urged a gathering of hardline Muslims to prepare the next generation for holy war.

Bin Laden's statement was issued to coincide with a three-day convention that ends Wednesday. About 200,000 Muslim men at the gathering celebrated the Deoband Dar-ul-Uloom Islamic teachings, which inspired the Taliban religious militia, who govern most of Afghanistan.

The 143-year-old school in Deoband, India, is also the ideological inspiration of most hardline Islamic groups in Pakistan, including the conference organizers, Jamiat-e-Ulema or Organization of Islamic Clerics.

Bin Laden's statement, which was sent to Pakistani news organizations earlier this week, was not read out at the convention.

The statement urged wealthy Muslims to support the Taliban and use their money to rebuild their war-shattered nation.

It also urged the new generation to train for holy war, or jehad.

''Issue a call to the young generation to get ready for the holy war and to prepare for that in Afghanistan,'' he said. ''I appeal to you to teach Muslims that there is no honor except in jehad in the way of God.''

Successive speakers at the conference were sharply critical of the United States and the United Nations.

They loudly denounced the sanctions imposed against the Taliban in January, an attempt to press them to hand over bin Laden for trial.

The Taliban say it would betray Islamic tenets to hand over bin Laden to a non-Muslim country for trial. They also say the United States has not provided proof of bin Laden's involvement in terrorism.

In a taped address played Wednesday at the convention, the Taliban's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammed Omar called the United Nations a tool of Washington, which he said wants to see the destruction of Muslims worldwide.

The latest expression of international outrage against the Taliban came in February when Omar issued an edict ordering the destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, including two mammoth ancient mountain carvings hewn from a Bamiyan cliff face. He called them idolatrous and offensive to Islam, which outlaws images.

In his statement, Bin Laden praised Omar's edict, calling it a ''great Islamic decision.''

Afghanistan has been battered by civil war, a drought, famine and the U.N. sanctions aimed at forcing Bin Laden's handover.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., said he had met with Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil to offer a peace plan that would end more than two decades of fighting.

Rohrabacher declined to elaborate on the proposal, which he said is his own initiative and does not represent the position of the U.S. government. He spoke to The Associated Press from the Qatari capital of Doha, where he met Muttawakil.

Rohrabacher, a member of the House International Relations Committee and a former special assistant for Afghanistan in the Reagan administration, said Muttawakil's response was ''thoughtful and inquisitive.''

Rohrabacher said Muttawakil would present the plan to the Taliban leadership, and that he was prepared to travel to the Afghan capital Kabul if they showed interest.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001

Answers

Ahhhh yes, another "Holy" war, just what we need. Sure would like to know why God needs these wars going on all the time.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001