WASHINGTON, Jan 23: The Pentagon and the State Department have begun distributing pamphlets aimed at influencing American Muslims to support action against Iraq.

The glossy 12-page book is entitled “Saddam Hussein: A Nightmare for Muslims”.

Largely a compendium of previously published human rights reports, it is already being distributed in “outreach meetings” conducted by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld with religious and community leaders and other State and Defence department officials.

Nowhere in the pamphlet is there any indication that it is a U.S. government publication. According to a Pentagon official, the booklet was created by the Pentagon Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict Office and the State Department.

A poll taken last year by the American Muslim Council indicated that one-third of American Muslims polled saw the war in Afghanistan as a war on Islam, rather than on terrorism.