Mubarak Calls for Solving Mideast Issue to Eradicate TerrorismEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday called for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflicts to root out terrorism."Terrorism cannot be halted unless the Palestinian issue is solved and violence should never be associated with Islam," Mubarak told Egyptian religious leaders, quoted by the state-run MENA news agency. "I believe what is going on in the Palestinian territories, namely their efforts to restore the occupied lands, is not terrorism. Otherwise, we would deem as terrorism the Israeli acts in the occupied Palestinian territories," Mubarak said. Sheikh Mohammad Sayyed Tantawi, grand imam of Egypt's Al-Azhar, said that "the Islamic Sharia (law) is based on tolerance and justice, and considers that all people come from the same father and mother." "Islam protects mankind from any aggression and orders its followers to extend a hand of peace to everyone," the imam of the highest authority in Sunni Islam said. Sheikh Tantawi also said that he was opposed to the U.S. military strikes on Afghanistan, adding that it is wrong to "punish a whole people" for the U.S. terror attacks. Al-Azhar is the most prestigious seat of the world's Sunni Muslims. Sheikh Tantawi has close relations with President Mubarak and usually reflects views of the Egyptian government. The U.S. and Britain started on October 7 military actions against Afghan's ruling Taliban and bases of Osama bin Laden's al- Qaeda network, accused of behind the devastating September 11 terror attacks in the U.S. which claimed several thousands of lives. |
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