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Muslims Pray for American Defeat, Bin Laden Victory, as Ramadan Starts

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia (AP) - Worshippers from Saudi Arabia to Jordan prayed Friday for America's demise and Osama bin Laden's safety and victory on the first day of Ramadan, the holy Muslim month of fasting.

"The Americans are digging their own grave and, God willing, our holy warriors in Afghanistan will bury them soon," said Ahmed, a 25-year-old Saudi from Khobar, who only wanted to be identified by his first name.

But the prayer leader at a Khobar mosque, Sheik Mohammed al-Tawwash, was more cautious in his sermon. He called on God to "protect the innocent Muslims and give them victory over the infidels and enemies of Islam" but made no mention of the U.S.-led attacks on Afghanistan.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah had urged Muslim clerics to be cautious in their pronouncements, saying they had a responsibility toward their faith and government.

"You know that we are now passing through critical days and our duty requires that we be mindful ... because you are now a target for those who are biased against the Islamic faith," Abdullah said in remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

Saudi Arabia - Washington's closest Persian Gulf ally - is mindful of maintaining close U.S. ties while also appeasing Saudis who see the airstrikes as a war against Islam.

During Ramadan, observant Muslims abstain from eating, drinking, smoking and sex between sunrise and sunset. The month, which officially began Friday in most Arab nations, commemorates the time when God began revealing the Quran, the Muslim holy book, to the Prophet Muhammad some 1,400 years ago.

In Jordan, a preacher at an Amman university mosque prayed for God to seek revenge from "Americans, Jews, their allies and whoever stands behind them."

"God, disperse them and grant victory to the mujahedeen (holy warriors) in Palestine, Afghanistan and Chechnya," Abdul-Wahab Kassasbeh said.

In Lebanon, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a senior Shiite Muslim cleric, railed against what he called U.S. attempts to establish a "strategic base" in Central Asia.

"Muslims, Arabs and the entire world should know that America does not care for the interests of the entire world but it is working in the context of the international coalition against the so-called 'terrorism' to serve its interests at the expense of the others," Fadlallah said in a sermon at a Beirut mosque.

In northern Afghanistan, thousands of men crowded into the main mosque in Taloqan to hear a new northern alliance-appointed prayer leader, Sadiq, who promised to bring Afghanistan good government and peace.

"We will give the rights of women and the rights of educated people, and bring a real Islam," he said, urging alliance members to keep fighting terrorism.

Prayers at the main mosque in the Gulf state of Bahrain included no mention of the strikes on Afghanistan.

"He who fasts in Ramadan, with faith and introspection, his sins will be forgiven," said Sheik Adnan Gattan. "The holy month of Ramadan is an opportunity for Muslims as peoples and societies ... to replenish our blessings and to cleanse our souls of sin."

He called on God's help for Palestinians, Afghans, Chechens and Kashmiris, saying: "Oh God, remove their calamities and their sadness."

In Damascus, more than 10,000 Syrians prayed for rain as the country braced for its fifth straight year of drought.

"This drought is a disaster God has inflicted on us because we - leaders and peoples - are disobeying him," Sheikh Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Boutti told worshippers.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Answers

Not very encouraging, is it, she said with typical British understatement.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

"This drought is a disaster God has inflicted on us because we - leaders and peoples - are disobeying him," Sheikh Muhammad Saeed Ramadan al-Boutti told worshippers.

Punishment for not groveling at the feet of the USA? I don't think so.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001

Nice catch, Apoc! Other than for the oil, I have no idea why we even bother with them...

P.S. Can we pack up Petra and have it shipped West, say to Moab maybe? It'd fit right in with the rest of the red-rock... ;-)

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2001