Posted on 09/18/2001 8:45:53 PM PDT by atc
KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Vilified by Washington, Osama bin Laden, prime suspect for the horrific attacks last week on the United States, is seen by many in Muslim Pakistan as a shining example of the perfect holy warrior.
"(Bin Laden) is the leader of the Muslim nation, a real lion ... fighting for the rights of suppressed Muslims all over the world," a driver for a European firm, who declined to give his name, said Tuesday.
With bin Laden being sheltered by the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan and that country being chalked out for U.S. military reprisals, many people on the streets of Pakistan's volatile city of Karachi see the Saudi-born militant as an innocent victim.
"Osama is a mujahid (holy warrior). He fought a jihad (holy war) against the Russians...how can he be a terrorist?" said Syed Naeem Ahmad, the bearded owner of an Islamic bookshop.
"Pakistan should announce a war against the United States to protect Afghanistan, otherwise after the Taliban, the Americans would target Pakistan," he added.
Tuesday, the latest pro-bin Laden protest took place in Karachi, with hundreds of people chanting slogans and waving portraits of their hero. An alliance of religious groups have called a national protest Friday.
Although a few posters of bin Laden have been pasted on walls in central Karachi, these have been put up discreetly and removed quickly by authorities.
Some video and bookshops in the city's teeming markets and bazaars have been selling material on bin Laden and his al-Qaida organization, but little has been on show in public.
Bin Laden, a multi-millionaire who sees himself waging a holy war that God will reward, is the world's most wanted man. Even before being fingered as the main suspect in last week's attacks he carried a $5 million bounty on his head for alleged involvement in the deadly 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa and planned attacks on other U.S. interests.
Also in Karachi, bin Laden supporters brandished a poster reading "Osama is herrow (sic)," while local residents crowded bookstores to leaf through volumes displaying a color photo of the bearded fugitive leader.
Across Pakistan, images of bin Laden decorate match boxes and the sides of trucks, and are even printed on the long turbans that many Afghans wind around their heads.
CHAOS CONSPIRACY
Bookshop owner Ahmad said the attacks on Washington and New York were a conspiracy to sow chaos in the Muslim world, but for some poor people, the daily grind to earn money takes priority.
"War will only mean more difficulties and that's all," said a middle-aged man sitting outside the passport office in Karachi. "I don't know who is Osama or the Taliban...and I don't want to know them."
Mohammad Zahoor, a young man ladling milk into plastic bags, said last week's attacks were wrong and against Islam, but that Pakistan should not support the United States.
"Osama is not a terrorist, he is a jihadi... Bush said he wants Osama dead or alive, what kind of justice is this? Without any trial he wants a person dead... Bush is the actual terrorist," he said.
While many condemned the attacks on the United States that left around 5,000 people killed, some said they were ready to fight for Islam.
"If Afghanistan needs me for jihad, I will go there and fight against the United States," said one man.
Shopkeepers in the northwestern town of Peshawar were told Tuesday to stop selling posters of bin Laden, who has grown so popular in parts of northwestern Pakistan that some stores have begun looking for a mini bonanza selling objects with his name or image on it after U.S. officials started blaming him for the attacks on New York and Washington.
My dear brother and sister FReepers,
At this, of all times in my lifetime, I would like nothing more than to be able to read these threads and reply to them. I have much I would like to say.
BUT, I cannot!
Why?
Because I am trying hard to raise the finances needed to keep FreeRepublic up and running so that we can continue to share valuable information and respond to it.
I beg you, if you have not yet donated to FreeRepublic this quarter, do so now!
If you have already donated, THANK YOU VERY MUCH AND GOD BLESS YOU, please ping your friends, and FReep on...!
I realize you are giving to lots of Relief efforts and I encourage you to do so. But we need to help FR too. Where would we be right now without it?
If you have no money, please come and bump the Fundraiser Thread.
I would really like to reach our goal quickly so that I and the rest of the dedicated FReepers who are working the Fundraiser Threads can participate in what is undeniably the most important time in FreeRepublic's history.
WHERE WOULD YOU GET YOUR NEWS FROM IF FREEREPUBLIC WASN'T HERE?<--click here
Support FreeRepublic! Support the U.S.A. <--click here
In neighbouring Afghanistan, a pro-Taleban newspaper accuses Washington of using last week's events as a pretext to hit out at Islam.
Etefaq-e Eslam, a weekly published in the western Afghan city of Herat, says the Bush administration is using the attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon as an excuse to "crush Islam".
 International arrogance is feigning Socratic irony while seizing the opportunity to crush the pillars of the Islamic systems  |
|
Afghanistan's Etefaq-e Eslam
|
Arrogance
"American officials know very well that Muslims of that country or other countries, in particular Osama Bin Laden, do not have the capability to carry out such terrorist actions.
"However, international arrogance is feigning Socratic irony while seizing the opportunity to crush the pillars of the Islamic systems."
Washington is "repeating the old song and accusing Osama... in order to mislead international public opinion and reassure the American people".
In Pakistan, the press is fiercely divided over Islamabad's role in the affair.
Targets
The Urdu-language Jasarat accuses Washington of "losing its mental equilibrium" in choosing Osama Bin Laden, Afghanistan and Pakistan as targets for "a third world war".
The real target is Pakistan ... Israel wants to militarily occupy the only nuclear power in the Islamic world |
|
Jasarat
|
Jasarat suggests that "the real target is Pakistan", noting that the events are "part of a pre-planned project under which Israel wants to militarily occupy the only nuclear power in the Islamic world".
"We must understand that the Zionist lobby in the United States has started a worldwide war against Islam.
"The real question is whether the rulers of Pakistan show courage and steadfastness," Jasarat argues.
"But the danger comes from the classes which monopolise power in Pakistan. They show cowardice, weakness and the lack of conscience at every sensitive moment, which has destroyed Pakistan."
Blackmail
Another Urdu daily, Rawalpindi's Nawa-i-Waqt, counsels Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf to "reject American blackmail, as it would confirm the Indian occupation of Kashmir if it does not get our cooperation".
The United States is trying to make us fight this friend... The American agencies are seeking a scapegoat to hide their own failures. Bin Laden is an easy target |
|
Nawa-i-Waqt
|
One of Pakistan's largest-circulation dailies, Nawa-i-Waqt describes Afghanistan as "our neighbour and dear friend. The United States is trying to make us fight this friend... The American agencies are seeking a scapegoat to hide their own failures. Bin Laden is an easy target".
Cooperating with Washington will "destroy our national security, defence, foreign and domestic policies.
"Our situation would be worse than Iraq as we would lose the friendship not only of Afghanistan, but also of China".
Assurances
Islamabad's Urdu-language Ausaf, however, says the United States "must believe that the assurances given by Pakistan regarding the eradication of international terrorism are not hollow promises".
"The Pakistani people will also prove they hate terrorism the most."
An editorial in the English-language Pakistan Observer says the country should take advantage of a situation which was "unprecedented, marked by serious challenges and grave ramifications".
"It is imperative that the advantage of Pakistan's 'unstinted cooperation' in fighting terrorism should also accrue to Islamabad. Let Washington not be the only beneficiary of the international coalition."
Enemies
The News International, another English-language daily, says the Muslims have been singled out as "the new enemy of the next cold war".
Let us not fret over the indignity of being arm-twisted into befriending the US again or count the cost of another misadventure. Let us not ask the pointing fingers for proof, or point to Israel as the prime beneficiary of the slick operation |
|
Anwar Ahmad in The News International
|
It said the cry "America is at war" had "stimulated xenophobic and religious prejudices".
A columnist in The News International, Anwar Ahmad, looks to a hypothetical 2011, when "all militant movements have been crushed".
"Let us not fret over the indignity of being arm-twisted into befriending the US again or count the cost of another misadventure. Let us not ask the pointing fingers for proof, or point to Israel as the prime beneficiary of the slick operation that has deflected attention from its barbarity, demonised the Muslims and set the US on a collision course with them."
BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
Pro-Taleban supporters voice their feelings in Pakistan
Sure, everything is because of Israel. These dumb pakis might have forgotten but India is looking to nuke these rats too, not just Isrealis.
Nearly every one of these arab countries has a huge population of islamist nutballs in it, sometimes the government e.g. the Taliban is made up of them, and sometimes its not. I think it is possible the Pakistanis want to flush the nutballs out and have a war with them so that their government, once it rids itself of this threat, will be able to operate without as much worry. I could be wrong, but then again maybe not.
A perfect hole, perhaps....a Warrior? A spoiled super-rich brat that pays other people to slit female flight attendant's throats while their hands are bound? Not a chance. No not a warrior. Invertebrate, maybe... rodent, perhaps,... Evil, meglomaniacal, narcissistic lunatic with a Hitlerian messianic complex, ...definately. Not a warrior. You need a sense of honor to be a warrior.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.