KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia -- Sheik Mohammed al-Tawwash did not mention the United States or Osama bin Laden by name, but the meaning of his words -- in the first hours of the holy month of Ramadan -- were clear.

At a Khobar mosque, he asked God to "protect the innocent Muslims and give them victory over the infidels and enemies of Islam."

Throughout the Middle East, the spiritual mingled with the political on Friday. Ramadan -- which commemorates God's revelation of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, to the Prophet Muhammad about 1,400 years ago -- began with introspection, with services and with prayers by many for victory over U.S.-led forces.

In Saudi Arabia, closely tied to the United States, Crown Prince Abdullah had urged clerics to be cautious; they had a responsibility toward their faith and government, he said.

And sermons like al-Tawwash's seemed temperate, at least in comparison to the words of Abdul-Wahab Kassasbeh, the preacher at Amman University mosque in Jordan, who called on God to wreak vengeance on "Americans, Jews, their allies and whoever stands behind them."

He attacked Americans, Israelis, and Russians. "God, disperse them and grant victory to the mujahadeen (holy warriors) in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Chechnya," he told his congregants.

In Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric, warned worshippers at a south Beirut mosque that the United States was trying to crush the Taliban in order to establish a "strategic base" in Central Asia.

"Muslims, Arabs and the entire world should know that America does not care for the interests of the entire world, but it is working in the context of the international coalition against the so-called 'terrorism' to serve its interests," Fadlallah said.

And away from the pulpit there was no shortage of sentiment in favor of bin Laden and his al-Qaida terrorist network.

"The Americans are digging their own grave and, God willing, our holy warriors in Afghanistan will bury them soon," said Ahmed, 25, in Khobar, on condition that he be identified only by his first name.

The Taliban's retreat was strategic, said said Ridwan, 38, who would not give his first name. "Let (the American-backed forces) rejoice now. They will suffer the consequences later," he said.

In Afghanistan itself, thousands crowded into the main mosque in the northern town of Taloqan to hear a new prayer leader, Sadiq, promise that the northern alliance would confer good government.

"We will grant the rights of women and the rights of educated people, and bring a real Islam," said Sadiq, appointed by the northern alliance this week.

He urged an unrelenting battle against terrorism. "If you are killed in this fighting, you will reap the rewards in heaven," Sadiq said.

During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset to spiritually renew themselves. Happy crowds of men filled Taloqan's markets to shop for their first fast-breaking meal on Friday evening.

The only women on the streets in Taloqan, a provincial capital, still wore burkas, the head-to-foot robes imposed by the Taliban.

Not all Muslim ministers spoke about politics. In Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca, at the Grand Mosque, Sheik Saud al-Sharim ignored Afghanistan in his sermon. Instead, he concentrated on what Muslims should do during the next four weeks.

"A human being without the Quran is like life without water or air. His feelings and soul is certainly bankrupt and the Quran is the remedy," al-Sharim said.

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794

FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson