Posted on 10/30/2001 6:09:43 PM PST by grimalkin
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Oct 30, 2001 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Thousands of Muslim clerics and their followers plan to enter the Pakistani capital Islamabad next week, and they vow to stay there as long as it takes to topple the government.
In a statement to the Pakistani press, the Afghan Defense Council said it has asked its followers to "come to Islamabad on Nov. 7 with food, tents and blankets and stay there as long as it takes to make the government change its Afghan policy. If it fails to do so, we will stay as long as it takes to change the government."
The council, an umbrella group of 19 religious parties, opposes President Pervez Musharraf's decision to back U.S. airstrikes on Afghanistan that began Oct. 7. The group also wants the Musharraf government to take back five air bases it has allowed U.S. forces to use for operations in Afghanistan and instead support Kabul's Taliban regime.
A leading Muslim cleric, Sufi Mohammed, said he has amassed 10,000 volunteers in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt to go and fight alongside the Taliban militia against the Americans.
But the Taliban have refused to accept the volunteers and instead urged their supporters to send food and financial assistance.
The clerics organize protests across Pakistan every Friday after the weekly prayers. Although most of the rallies are small, last week they managed to collect more than 40,000 people in Karachi.
But the Pakistani government insists a silent majority still favors its decision to back the Americans and the protesters are a small minority.
"Forty-thousand people in a city of 12 million? Not big. Even an average rally in Karachi attracts more than 100,000 people while big ones have had as many as a million," said a local police official.
The council has pledged to "provide lifetime financial support to those who die fighting the Americans."
Some activists are distributing a pamphlet from the Taliban saying that anybody who "catches a U.S. commando alive will get $50,000 while those who bring the uniform of a U.S. commando will get $5,000."
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that some U.S. special forces were already in Afghanistan.
Comprising Muslim clerics and their students, like those protesting in Pakistan, the Taliban regime earned U.S. wrath by refusing to turn over Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. More than 5,000 people were killed in the attacks, and the U.S. government has worked to form an international alliance to fight terrorism.
Pakistan, which has a 1,560-mile long border with Afghanistan and enjoyed close relations with the Taliban before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, plays a key role in this alliance.
Although so far a small religious group opposes Musharraf's decision to back the Americans, political analysts in Pakistan say the situation could change rapidly if the U.S. strikes continued. They warned that the death of dozens of civilians in U.S. bombings has enraged people across the Muslim world.
Fearing a backlash, several Muslim governments have urged the United States to stop the airstrikes during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan that begins Nov. 17.
While rejecting the plea, U.S. officials have reportedly agreed with their Muslim allies to stop the strikes for several hours a day, allowing the Afghans to keep their fasts.
Let's get all these a**holes in one place and then kill them.
It shouldn't take more than a day or two.
L
This doesn't sound terribly generous to me. Maybe there's something in the fine print.
I thought exactly the same thing. It's kind of like those 5-10k troops in Pak that want to join with the taliban and fight against us. Great!!! Put them in that 100 truck convoy. Then turn one of those AC-130's loose on them. Woowwwweeee!
We were told that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
We were told that it is against Islam to kill innocent people.
We were told that the terrorists acted outside of the teachings of the Quran and Islamic beliefs.
How then, can it be true, that Muslim clerics are opposed to us killing the anti Islamic terrorists and their defenders.
Don't they know we wish to kill the bastards and their supporters - to repair the damage done to the "good name" of the "peace loving" Muslims all over the world.
Someone please explain this to those "Muslim clerics" and have them SHUT THE F>>K Up, sit back and watch the pretty glow in the sky to their West and East.
Semper Fi
Something's fishy. Why would they prefer that all these fanatics stay back in Pakistan and not help out in Afghanistan? Perhaps there is a subversive plot planned for Pakistan and they'll need their help there. Perhaps they're planning on nuking large portions of Afghanistan and don't won't any more fanatics there than needed to lure large numbers US troops inland...
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