DOHA (Islamweb & News Agencies) - The world's largest Islamic body expressed concern Wednesday at the prospect of civilian casualties in Afghanistan but steered clear of condemning U.S. strikes against the Taliban rulers sheltering Osama bin Laden. (Read photo caption below)A communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference said member countries representing 1.2 billion Muslims condemned the Sept. 11 suicide attacks on the United States.
``The conference also expressed its concern that confronting terrorism could lead to casualties among innocent civilians in Afghanistan and asserted the importance of assuring the territorial integrity of Afghanistan and its Islamic character,'' the communique added.
The 56-nation OIC, meeting in the Gulf state of Qatar, said the conference expressed its rejection of the targeting of any Arab country under the pretext of combating terrorism.
It also rejected aggression against any Islamic state -- a phrase seen by delegates as referring to attacks on Afghan civilians rather than on the Taliban.
``We don't have to blame the United States because what happened in the United States is a big tragedy; 6,000 people were killed in one day and they were killed by terrorist action,'' Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told a news conference at the end of the meeting.
``We don't generally support military action but then again we don't support terrorism either and we also have to identify terrorism and see its causes, which is why we asked for it to be discussed...at the United Nations in future,'' he said.
The Taliban have stirred strong criticism from many Muslim nations for their hard-line ideology and only one country, OIC member Pakistan, recognizes them as Afghanistan's government.
PHOTO CAPTION:
The head of the world's biggest Islamic organization condemned the attacks on the U.S. but said as he opened an emergency meeting of the group October 10, 2001 that retaliation should not harm civilians. 'We assert our utter rejection of these attacks and assert that confronting them must not touch innocent civilians and must not extend beyond those who carried out those attacks,' said the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani(R) seen with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat video still at the Organization Of Islam conference in Doha. (Reuters TV/Reuters)