Muslim Cleric Says US Raids Make Bin Laden PopularA top Islamic cleric warned Americans on Friday that the US-led bombing of Afghanistan was alienating Muslims and boosting support for Osama bin Laden."We tell reasonable people in America: You have won some of the rulers of Islamic countries but you have lost the Muslim nation and the Muslim street," said Sheikh Youssef al-Qardawi, a widely respected Egyptian cleric based in Qatar. "You lost most of those, for most of them now hate you especially after hitting Afghanistan. You have made bin Laden a hero. People are carrying his pictures, not out of love for him but out of hate for America," Qardawi said in a sermon aired on Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite television. Angry Muslims in several Islamic states took to the streets after the first Friday prayers since US President George W. Bush launched military strikes on Muslim Afghanistan, which is harbouring Washington's main suspect in last month's suicide aerial attacks on New York and Washington, Osama bin Laden. "It is unjust to say all of America is bad. There are some people who reject this war. There are people who have been misled by the media," Qardawi told Muslims. |
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