http://www.irna.com/en/head/021231155438.ehe.shtml

Brussels, Dec 31, IRNA -- You ask any Muslim on the streets from the Atlantic shores of Morocco to the archipelago of Indonesia what or who is the main target of America's war on terror and he will not think twice before answering, "Islam and Muslims."

Just a few days after the 11 September terror attacks in New York and ashington, US President George W. Bush warned Americans that "this crusade, this war on terrorism, is going to take awhile."

President Bush's pronouncement that he would wage a crusade against terrorism outraged the Muslim World which had strongly condemned the 11/9 attacks.

Regimes who worry that they will be next

Rulers face conciliation or confrontation

Brian Whitaker, Dan de Luce in Tehran, John Gittings and Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles

Friday April 11, 2003, The Guardian

Fears that Iraq may not be the last American target have been raised by bellicose statements from the Pentagon and US neo-conservatives directed against other members of the "axis of evil" and the so-called "states of concern".

In light of the Baghdad regime's fate, these countries now face a choice between fight and flight.

Syria

John Pilger, 06 April 2003

We now glimpse the forbidden truths of the invasion of Iraq. A man cuddles the body of his in-fant daughter; her blood drenches them. A woman in black pursues a tank, her arms outstretched; all seven in her family are dead. An American Marine murders a woman because she happens to be standing next to a man in a uniform. "I'm sorry,'' he says, "but the chick got in the way.''

By John Pilger, 5 April 2003

WE HAD a great day," said Sgt Eric Schrumpf of the US Marines last Saturday. "We killed a lot of people."

He added: "We dropped a few civilians, but what do you do?" He said there were women standing near an Iraqi soldier, and one of them fell when he and other Marines opened fire. "I'm sorry," said Sgt Schrumpf, "but the chick was in the way".

For me, what is remarkable about this story is that I heard almost the same words 36 years ago when a US Marine sergeant told me he had killed a pregnant woman and a child because they had "got in the way".

Transcripts of AHMAD DEEDAT

Say: 'Do you see whether this message be from Allah (God Almighty), and yet you reject it, and a witness from among the Children of Israel bore witness of one like him.' " (the Holy Quran 46:10)

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

The subject of this evening's talk - "What the Bible says about Muhammed" will no doubt come as a surprise to many of you because the speaker is a Muslim. How does it come about that a Muslim happens to be expounding prophecies from the Jewish and Christian Scriptures?

As a young man, about 30 years ago, I attended a series of religious lectures by a Christian theologian, a certain Rev. Hiten, at the "Theater Royal", Durban in South Africa.

An Arab press review, Daily Star, 3/28/03

As the invasion of Iraq enters its second week, the mounting toll of civilian casualties not only outrages commentators in the Arab world but increasingly convinces them that the Americans and British are going to find it harder to achieve their war aims than they imagined.

“Fifty people killed by cluster bombs in Basra. Over 600 dead in Najaf. Tens of bodies in the Baghdad market yesterday, scores more in Nasseriya the day before. And we’re still at the beginning of the war, meaning we’ve yet to see all its American and British filth,” writes Abdelwahhab Badrakhan in the Saudi-run pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat.

THE REVIVAL PRESS RELEASE

At this critical moment when war is the buzz word many Muslims (aswell as people of all faiths and nations) are left in despair and in a state of hopelessness. It may seem that the death of millions of innocents is now inevitable, but we must continue to strive our utmost to defend them and to spread the truth about this illegal and immoral war.

HERE ARE 10 THINGS EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US CAN DO:(Forward this to all your contacts)

The Islamic Research Academy at Al-Azhar declares:

"The Islamic Research Academy has studied the serious events occurring in our Arab and Islamic World and the signs of evil and destruction in our present world. They are a result of power's mania that disregards all values, norms and international laws for which humanity has striven, sacrificed lives and wealth, and withstood pain in order to declare and guarantee them due respect.

The Academy has discussed these events, considering the signs of destruction and evils surrounding the Arab and Islamic World, which are represented by the military troops armed with the most powerful and dangerous weapons of destruction.

Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid

I had expected criticism of the Arab TV channels to be based on their one-sided reporting of the war to the benefit of the Iraqi government and their determinedly inflammatory content.

However, what enraged Western governments and human rights and media organizations were the images of the American prisoners on our TV screens. They considered them a contravention of the Geneva Convention, which holds nations in armed conflict to certain standards in dealing with prisoners of war.

To say that this criticism is displaced is not to defend Al-Jazeera, which has received more than its share of condemnation. But it is to reject the illogical binding of some groups to rules that do not apply to others.

Shaykh Hisham Kabbani, Shaykh Siraj Hendricks, Shaykh Ahmad Hendricks

It cannot be over-emphasized that Islam upholds the values of reason, balance and responsibility in the conduct of its worldly affairs. There is nothing arbitrary about its legal provisions relating to matters of war, peace, international relationships and the rule of law.

In this area there is considerable agreement between Islamic law and the legal systems currently practiced throughout the world. In addition to the real possibility that these legal systems were profoundly influenced by the legal heritage of Islam, this commonality can be explained by the fact that the protection and endorsement of basic human rights form the cornerstone of Islamic legislation.