Clerics warn U.S. against retaliation

MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi: Leaders of five religions called on the U.S. on Wednesday to refrain from taking excessive retaliatory measures against states it suspected of backing last week's terrorist attacks on America.

Local Muslim, Protestant, Catholic, Hindu and Buddhist leaders grouped in the South Sulawesi Religious Believers Forum warned that a hasty decision could lead to "a clash of civilizations" that could be more disastrous than the first and second world wars combined.

They advised the U.S. to focus on the perpetrators and not attribute the crime to a particular religion or nation.

"We don't want to see indiscriminate U.S. attacks with unwanted side effects in other parts of the world, like Makassar," said priest Willibrodus Welle Pr. from Makassar diocese.

There are fears that a U.S. attack on a Middle East country would be viewed by Muslim hard-liners as an assault against Islam, and in turn lead to Muslim hard-liners venting their anger on Christians.

Hamka Haq of the South Sulawesi chapter of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) appealed to local Muslims not to be provoked by the U.S. threat to bomb certain Middle East countries.

"We sincerely hope that America drops its plan (to attack any Muslim country) so that there will be no unwanted tension here or elsewhere," he said. (27)