Prominent Muslim figures back Iraqi rebels

Prominent Muslim figures back Iraqi rebels

Reuters, Cairo

Ninety-three prominent Muslim figures opposed to U.S. troops in
Iraq called on Muslims around the world to support resistance to
U.S. forces and to the Iraqi government installed in June.

In an appeal received on Sunday from the offices of Egypt's
Muslim Brotherhood, the Muslim figures from nearly 30 nations,
from Germany to Indonesia, said the aim should be to "purify the
land of Islam from the filth of occupation".

The signatories included senior members of the Brotherhood,
leading Qatari-based moderate Youssef al-Qaradawi, Hizbollah
leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah of Lebanon, Khaled Mashal of the
Palestinian group Hamas, two Egyptian opposition party leaders,
Sheikh Abdeslam Yassine of Morocco's Justice and Charity Group
and Yemeni Speaker of Parliament Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar.

Others came from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bosnia, the
Comoros, Germany, Indonesia, India, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya,
Malaysia, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South
Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan and Tunisia.

The appeal said that Muslim rulers had been silent to the
point of complicity in the face of what it called Anglo-American
and Zionist aggression in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

"(The signatories) call on our Arab and Muslim peoples and all
religious authorities and liberation forces everywhere to oppose
the occupation and savage crimes in Iraq and Palestine, by
providing all kinds of material and moral support to the
honorable resistance ... until God's victory comes," it said.

The statement called the Iraqi government "subordinate and
installed, a mere shadow of the occupation, designed to impose
hegemony on Iraq and its resources."

The signatories called for democracy throughout the Muslim
world through free and fair elections, with respect for pluralism
and the dignity of citizens.