Scholar: This is indeed about faith

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- "Osama bin-Laden wants to be the new caliph," Paul Marshall, a leading authority on religious rights, told United Press International Thursday. The caliph is Mohammed's deputy on earth. The Turkish Grand National assembly abolished this office in 1924.

Marshall, a senior fellow at the Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, stated, "it is transparently ludicrous" to say the current war was not about religion.

"Certainly Osama bin Laden's views are not those of the majority of Muslims around the world," Marshall wrote in an analytical paper. "Certainly the U.S. is not waging a war to defend a particular religion.

"It is defending Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, atheists and others from terror."

According to his analysis put out by the Center for Religious Freedom, a branch of Freedom House, "Bin Laden, his lieutenants, and his foot soldiers repeatedly state their aim to impose their version of Islam on, first, the Muslim world and, then, the rest of the world.

"They want each country to accept or be forced into submission to their version of Islamic Sharia law."

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Muslim leaders in the United States have unanimously challenged bin Laden's right to declare a holy war against the United States.

Under Islamic law, only the caliph or a legitimate government is authorized to do so, according to Muzzamil H. Siddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, Calif. "Osama bin Laden is neither."

Like Siddiqi, Mohammad Khouj, rector of the Islamic Center in Washington, described terrorist attacks as un-Islamic and said U.S. and British military actions against bin Laden were justified, provided sufficient evidence exists against him.

But Marshall warned against misconstruing the present conflict as simply a war against terrorism.

"By all means call this inauthentic religion, perverted religion, hijacked religion. But, at the cost of blinding ourselves, let us never forget that it is religion."

Disputing President George W. Bush, Marshall stressed: "We must realize that our enemy is not 'terrorism,' which is simply a tactic, but a perverted radical Islam composed of those who fight based on Osama bin Laden's beliefs."

As evidence Marshall quoted from bin Laden's 1998 interview with Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite television network: "There are two parties to this conflict: World Christianity, which is allied with Jews and Zionism, led by the United States, Britain and Israel. The second party is the Islamic world."

Marshall said: "When he (bin Laden) merged with Egypt's Islamic Jihad in 1999 they formed the 'World Islamic Front for Holy War Against Jews and Crusaders' (Christians)." He called this "the closest thing al Qaida has to an official name."

The British-born scholar said bin Laden's tentacles reach into 50 or even 70 countries. He links them to the Islamic radicals in Algeria, the FIS, who have slaughtered thousands of men, women and children, and to the Muslim-Christian conflict in Nigeria.

"He has had a cooperation with the Sudan, which has killed more Christians than any other nation," Marshall said. Most of the 2 million people who have perished in that country's civil war since 1998 were Christians.

In eastern Indonesia the Laskar Jihad militia is forcibly converting Christians to Islam. "This campaign has caused 5,000-6,000 deaths and half a million refugees." Laskar Jihad is part of Darul Islam, an increasingly powerful network organization with special links to bin Laden.

Indonesia, where youthful demonstrators have begun calling for the death of Christians, has the largest Muslim population in the world.

"Since Sept. 11, both hard-line and moderate Muslims have called for Holy War against Americans," reported International Christian Concern, a Washington-based human rights group. "The Council of Indonesian Ulemas (Islamic teachers) has appealed to all Muslims to unite in Jihad against the U.S. and its allies."

"Radicals within bin Laden's network are carrying out persecutions (of Christians) in many settings," Marshall said, naming among others the Philippines, Malaysia, Bangladesh and predominantly Muslim countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

Marshall particularly pointed to Pakistan, America's ally, where according to ICC "several Muslim religious leaders ... have issued a fatwa (religious decree) stating that two Pakistani Christians will be killed for every Muslim who dies during American strikes on Afghanistan."

Rev. Timotheus Nasir, moderator of the United Presbyterian Church in Pakistan, said Thursday he was reassured by the promises of the central government and local authorities to protect his coreligionists.

But in a statement issued Tuesday, ICC warned that militant Muslim leader Hafiz Syed had issued a religious decree that read, "We have started a Holy War against infidels and the USA. We will not spare any American and Christian people in this war."

"Jews and Christians can never be friends of Muslims. It is a religious obligation of every Muslim to take revenge."

Saudi Arabia, another country allied with the United States, "continues to detain 15 people on account of their Christian beliefs," ICC related. "One of the 15, a Christian identified only by his first name, Teshome, was released after being forced to convert to Islam. Three others have reportedly been tortured."

Will bin Laden, a Saudi citizen, prevail in his endeavor to become the new caliph of an Islamic world shaped according to his radical specifications? "I don't think so," said Marshall. "But a lot of blood will be shed before his ultimate failure."