Afghan Clerics Warn of Jihad

16/05/2005| IslamWeb

A group of Afghan Muslim clerics threatened yesterday to call for jihad against the US in three days unless it hands over military interrogators reported to have desecrated the Quran.

The warning came after 16 Afghans were killed and more than 100 hurt last week in the worst anti-US protests across the country since US forces invaded in 2001 to oust the Taliban for sheltering Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.

The clerics in the northeastern province of Badakhshan said they wanted US President George W Bush to handle the matter honestly "and hand the culprits over to an Islamic country for punishment".

"If that does not happen within three days, we will launch a jihad against America," said a statement issued by about 300 clerics, after meeting in the main mosque in the provincial capital, Faizabad.

The statement was read out by Abdul Fatah Fayeq, the top judicial official in the conservative province near the borders of Tajikistan and China.

Newsweek magazine said in its May 9 edition investigators probing abuses at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay found that interrogators "had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet".

The US has tried to calm global Muslim outrage over the incident, saying disrespect for the Quran would not be tolerated, and military authorities were investigating the allegation.

Another group of clerics in the north demanded punishment for those responsible but did not call for jihad, the governor of Kunduz province said.

The protests began in the eastern city of Jalalabad last Tuesday. Violence broke out the next day.

PHOTO CAPTION

Afghan students burn a US flag during a protest in Kabul. (AFP)