A rchive Date
[ 07-03-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Qatar ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/03/07/38260-ap.html
Muslim cleric warns against helping U.S.
By SALAH NASRAWI - Associated Press
Fri, March 7, 2003
DOHA, Qatar (AP) - Preaching in a mosque near the U.S. headquarters that would run a war against Iraq, a widely known Islamic scholar warned Muslim nations Friday against providing facilities to the American military for a strike against Saddam Hussein. Youssef al-Qaradawi also urged all Muslim nations to be prepared to fight against the U.S. invasion forces "if the Iraqis fail to drive them out."
In two summits this week, Arab and Muslim leaders rejected use of military force against Iraq and issued vague statements saying they would "abstain" from taking part in a war.
"What we want the leaders is to say that they will not open our land, our waters and our skies to help any aggression against our brothers," al- Qaradawi told about 2,000 faithful gathered for Friday prayer. "By opening our ports, our airports and our land, we are participating in the war," Qaradawi said. "We will be cursed by history because we have helped the Americans."
Qaradawi, a respected Egyptian Sunni Muslim cleric who lives in Qatar, has an enormous following in the Muslim world, in part because he appears on popular Arabic language satellite television stations.
The United States and Britain have amassed more than a quarter million troops in the region and thousands more are on the way in preparation for s possible war with Iraq because of Saddam's alleged failure to disarm. While Kuwait is being prepared as a launch pad for an attack, other Gulf countries say they would wait for a Security Council resolution that would authorize military force, as they did in 1991 when a U.S.-led coalition drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Qatar has played an increasingly important role for the U.S. military in the Gulf since the last war with Iraq. The Qataris built Al-Udeid air base, with the longest runway in the region, for use primarily by the United States. The Qatari government has also allowed the U.S. Army to stockpile tanks and other combat equipment at the As Sayliyah base since August 2000. As Sayliyah is expected to serve as the forward headquarters for the U.S. Central Command in case of war.
Sheik Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani, Qatar's foreign minister, told a press conference on Tuesday his country has not received a request from the United States to use Al-Udeid in any strike on Iraq. But he said his country may approve such a request. Among other major U.S. facilities in the region is Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia. The U.S Air Force also has more than 200 aircraft at two air bases in Kuwait, and other planes in Oman, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
During his sermon, Qaradawi urged Iraqis to resist any U.S.-led invasion and "if they can't drive them back, all their Muslim neighbors should. This is a religious duty." Qardawi, an ardent opponent of Israel said the war will help the Jewish state "occupy the Arab land from the Nile to the Euphrates" river in Iraq
Unlike in other Arab countries, where such fiery sermons are interrupted by shouts of Allah Akbar, or God is great, the congregation at the Omar bin al-Khatab mosque - mostly Arab and Asian workers - maintained silence and dispersed quietly afterward. Qataris in the congregation refused to comment when interviewed by foreign reporters.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said a U.S.-enforced regime change in Iraq was inevitable. "After America's heavy spending to deploy so many forces in the region, they will not go home empty-handed," he told the faithful in a Friday sermon. "They will change the (Iraqi) regime either by propaganda and psychological warfare, or by waging a war," he said.
Rafsanjani, who heads the powerful hard-line Expediency Council in Iran, warned that the region's future would be clouded by a U.S. military presence. "Instability will engulf the region for some time. Oil reserves will be harmed, and the oil market will be shaken up and become unstable," he said.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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