Radikale Muslims in Pakistan fordern die den Einsatz der A- Bombe gegen US Träger ! - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

[M_B_S]

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- The looming U.S. war on Iraq has given Pakistan`s Islamic hard-liners a powerful new platform -- and they have been using it with increasing fervor to attack the country`s close relationship with Washington.

They are holding mass demonstrations and offering words of support for young Pakistanis who decide to fight beside their Iraqi brothers.



On Monday, the leader of a small Islamic party even called on the government to attack American warships in the Persian Gulf with nuclear weapons if the ships are used in a war on Iraq.

"We have the capability of delivering our nukes to all four U.S. aircraft carriers that are now stationed in the Gulf," Salimullah Khan, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan Nifaz-e-Shariat party, told The Associated Press from Lahore after a meeting with about 30 other small Islamic groups. "The Americans are a threat not only to Iraq, but also Iran, the other Gulf countries and Pakistan."

Khan`s views may be extreme, even for leaders of Pakistan`s ultraconservative Islamic parties, but they shed a glaring light on the fragile nature of America`s strategic alliance with Pakistan.

Pakistan became a key ally of the United States shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when President Gen. Pervez Musharraf threw his support behind the U.S. invasion to oust the hardline Taliban from neighboring Afghanistan.

Religious parties inspired thousands of ordinary Pakistanis to stream across the border to fight alongside the hardline Afghan regime. Many were killed in the rout that followed, and thousands more were imprisoned.

Pakistan`s religious parties also sent young Pakistani militants off to fight alongside fellow Muslims in Chechnya and Bosnia, and to help Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. Hard-liners draw on a large network of deeply conservative religious schools, or madrassas, attended by many poor Pakistanis.

Leaders of the main religious coalition, the Muthida Majlis-e-Amal, say they are not overtly encouraging Pakistanis to travel to Iraq this time. But they voiced support for any young people who choose to take up the struggle against the Americans themselves.

"If people go there, whether they are from Pakistan or any other country, and die for a noble cause, they will definitely be martyrs," said Ameer ul-Azeem, spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami, the main party in the religious coalition. "Sacrifices of such people don`t go to waste."

The party`s chief, Qazi Hussain Ahmed, accused President Bush of being "a threat to world peace." He said his group lacked the resources to fly Pakistanis to Iraq to fight.

Pakistan`s government has been steadfastly vague about its position on Iraq. It says that it prefers peace but that the burden is on Saddam Hussein to disarm.

Most Pakistani citizens, however, are nearly unanimous in their opposition to the war.

A March 9 demonstration organized by the Islamic coalition drew more than 100,000 anti-war protesters to the streets of Rawalpindi, a city next to the capital. While the protests have been peaceful, many foreigners are worried about their security in Pakistan if war does break out.

Most Western embassies have already evacuated nonessential staff from Pakistan after a series of deadly attacks on foreigners, and staffing is likely to be reduced further in case of a war in Iraq.

[Carlo Disagio]

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