SUKKUR, Sept 30: The chief of the Jamiat-i-Ulema Pakistan, Shah Ahmed Noorani, said that the present war of the United States was not against Osama bin Laden or against Afghanistan but in fact it was against Islam. He referred to the speech of US President Bush in which he had declared “crusade” against his rival.

Mr Noorani said that Islam was spreading fast in the United States as it had a Muslim population of seven million and more than 1,300 mosques.

He said that the impact of Islam’s expansion was also recognized by former US president Clinton who had hosted a dinner for Muslims in the White House.

He said Jews and Christians were now conspiring because they feared the expansion of Islam in Europe, and also because they had been defeated in the crusade 800 years ago as Salahuddin Ayubi had defeated King Richard.

Mr Noorani said that the Government of Pakistan was left with only option to keep in line with the international opinion, otherwise India would cash on the situation.

He said Israel, India, and the USA would not be launching an attack on Afghanistan now but the UN would be monitoring all this under its umbrella.

He hailed President Musharraf for taking all shades of opinion into confidence and urged for continuing the process.

He said he had met religious leaders including Qazi Hussain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, and Sami-ul-Haq and they had decided against going to Afghanistan at the moment. Whenever he deemed fit he would go there to help the situation return to normalcy, he said.

Mr Noorani said that the USA had been “an international terrorist itself” as it had unleashed terror on Libya, Sudan and Iraq, where millions of children had died because they could not get medicines due to embargo and sanctions.

He said that nobody from Pakistan supported that aggression took place from our side, and added that Afghanistan was a brotherly Muslim state and “during the last three wars” our Northern borders had remained safe.

He criticized the US attitude as some mosques were targeted and the Muslim population was living in a state of harassment.

He elucidated that some Muslims were killed and targeted in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

He advised the government to keep national interests above all in which the entire nation would support them. He also met Pir of Pagara in Pirjo Goth to discuss political matters.

KILLED: Lala Khan, an employee of the Sukkur central jail, died when he was run over by a passenger train near the Sukkur railway station on Sunday.