^^^2:30 PM ET^^^ ARAB POLS, LEADERS - Reject bin Laden's call to arms

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Monday November 5, 2:00 AM

Arab politicians, religious leader, reject bin Laden's call to arms

Arab politicians and the highest authority in Sunni Islam rejected a call from presumed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden for Muslims to join in a "religious war" against the Christian West.

"Bin Laden does not speak in the name of the Arabs and Muslims," Arab League chief Amr Mussa told journalists in Damascus on Sunday, ahead of an Arab meeting focused on support for the Palestinians and the repercussions in the Middle East of the September 11 attacks in the United States.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher for his part said there was "a war between bin Laden and the world," in answer to a question on bin Laden's comments broadcast the previous day by the Qatari-based satellite television channel Al-Jazeera.

In the video-taped recording, bin Laden, number one suspect for the September 11 attacks, said: "It is fundamentally a question of a religious war ... the peoples of the East being Muslims, and those of the West being Christians."

He called on Muslims to "defend their religion and their brothers in Afghanistan" against the "crusade" being led by the United States.

The Afghan-based bin Laden also lashed at the United Nations, describing secretary general Kofi Annan as a "criminal" and branding those Arab leaders who deal with the UN as "infidels."

The al-Azhar institute, the highest Sunni Muslim authority, rejected all "religious wars" in an indirect response to bin Laden's appeal.

The al-Azhar centre for Islamic studies expressed its opposition to the "claims of conflict between civilisations, a war of religions and a conflict between cultures," a statement quoted by the Egyptian news agency MENA said.

The religious institute did not explicitly refer to the comments of bin Laden, who said Sunday in a videotape broadcast on the Arabic Al-Jazeera satellite channel that the current crisis was "a religious war" between Muslims and western "crusaders."

Al-Azhar also said in its statement that "the war against terrorism does not justify aggression against the poor and unarmed people of Afghanistan."

"Towns, villages, mosques, old men, women and children of this people are exposed to violent aggression, without any logical or acceptable reason, and even before the conclusions of the inquiry into the events of last September," it said.

Jordan's Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah al-Khatib also criticised bin Laden for rallying the Muslim masses to a holy war.

"The concept presented of Arab-Muslim civilisation in conflict with the rest of the world is very dangerous and carries great danger for all Arabs and their interests.

"We must be very vigilant and we must not allow these concepts to largely come to pass," he told reporters gathered at the Arab League meeting.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 2001


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