February 24, 2003	Monday	Zul Hijjah 22, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 23: Hundreds of students from religious seminaries of the capital marched from Lal Masjid to Aabpara to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people.

The march, which later turned into a large public gathering at Aabpara, was organized by the Islamabad-Rawalpindi chapter of Jamiat Ahl-i-Sunnat Al Jamaat.

The participants carried banners and placards inscribed with various anti-US slogans. A placard which remained the focus of attention was the one which read, “We appreciate the Europeans who held demonstrations in favour of Iraqi Muslims”.

The placard indeed symbolized a change in the perception of the religious people who usually lumped together all Europeans as warmongers as enemies of Islam.

The speakers, on the occasion, warned the American administration of a potential backlash if it did not desist from attacking Iraq. They said the US would soon face Soviet Union- like disintegration owing to its belligerent policies. They also called upon the Muslim rulers not to become American touts and assert their sovereignty by devising independent policies.

The speakers feared that after Iraq, the US would embark on disarming Pakistan. They observed that the Muslim rulers should sever diplomatic relations with America and expel its forces from their bases.

One of the speakers said the Muslim leadership was senseless and not the true representative of Muslims. He said revolution was the only way to drive away senseless leadership of Islamic countries.

The religious scholars accused the UN of double standard and maintained that it had adopted a different scale to gauge the Muslims. They said America should be brought to book as it was the first country which made and used weapons of mass destruction. They said the US was eying Iraqi oil reserves to shore up its ailing economy.

They urged the Muslims to wake up from the ‘deep slumber’ as Baghdad, the city of great religious men like Abu Hanifa and Sheikh Jilani, was once against under the threat of catastrophic destruction.