America Strikes Back

[mmayr]

Trainees eager to join 'jihad' against America

By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Morning at the Dar-ul-Uloom
Haqquania madrassa, or religious school, begins
with a prayer and a defiant chant. "Oh, Allah,
defeat the enemies of Muslims and make Islam and
the Taliban victorious over the Americans in
Afghanistan," the 3,500 students say in unison in
the school's courtyard. Then, they break into a
chorus of "Jihad! Jihad!" or "Holy war! Holy war!"
Their words bring a smile to the face of the
school's chancellor, Maulana Sami ul-Haq. "Osama
and the Taliban would be proud," he says. Ten of
the Taliban's 12 senior leaders studied here. Their
pictures hang on the walls of the courtyard, next
to that of Osama bin Laden.

Even Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's leader,
attended the school briefly before he left in the
1980s to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan.

"They are all our inspiration," Haq says. "And
soon, we'll be fighting alongside them."

Tens of thousands of students at Pakistan's 6,000
militant Muslim madrassas say they plan to go to
Afghanistan to fight U.S. soldiers, attack bases in
Pakistan that may host American forces, or conduct
suicide bomb attacks against U.S. targets if
President Bush launches military action against bin
Laden and the ruling Taliban militia in
Afghanistan.

Bush has named bin Laden the prime suspect in the
attacks in the USA and is expected by many here to
be preparing retaliatory strikes at him and the
Taliban, which has been harboring him for years.
But the madrassa students say any U.S.-led strikes
won't stop the terrorism.

"We are all Osama bin Ladens," says Abdullah Shah,
35, senior teacher at Dar-ul-Alloon Sarhad, a
nearby madrassa. "Getting rid of one Osama won't
solve your problems. Your trouble is just
beginning."

Already, more than 2,000 students, some carrying
the Koran, Islam's holy book, and AK-47 assault
rifles, have crossed into Afghanistan within the
last week, Pakistani officials say.

More are on their way. Hundreds of others, who have
been fighting Indian forces, are withdrawing from
the Pakistani side of the disputed Himalayan region
of Kashmir. They also are heading for Afghanistan,
Indian officials say.

Other madrassas, such as Haqquania here, are
planning to shut down temporarily next week to
allow their students to join the Taliban. Those who
do go are being offered "extra credit."

"We give them the knowledge, the Taliban gives them
the guns," Haq says. "I, and all my students, will
support the Taliban and Osama at all costs. They
are the only ones implementing true Islam."

Haq is believed to be one of bin Laden's closest
friends in Pakistan, and Pakistani officials say he
is a Taliban insider. He keeps three pictures atop
his desk, and one in his wallet, all of which show
him standing arm-in-arm with bin Laden. He says he
uses a red "hotline" phone on his desk to call
Taliban officials in the Afghan cities of Kabul and
Kandahar.

"Osama and the Taliban are alive and well, thanks
to God," Haq says.

He refuses to say when he last spoke with bin Laden
and denies knowing where he is hiding. "Osama and
the Taliban will not go lightly. They are preparing
for a fight. That's where we come in."

USA TODAY was invited to spend a day at two of
Pakistan's madrassas, one of them militant and the
other moderate. The Islamic clerics who run the
schools say they want to explain their anger to
Americans before their jihad against the United
States begins.

There are an estimated 40,000 madrassas in
Pakistan, of which the government says 6,000 are
militant. The madrassas, financed by wealthy
businessmen in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other
countries, offer the best chance for an education
for Pakistan's poor. Most government-run schools
are overcrowded and underfunded and require
students to pay for some costs. The madrassas do
not charge tuition.

The students, most of whom are from Pakistan and
Afghanistan, spend up to 6 hours a day memorizing
the Koran. Then, they spend 2-4 hours listening to
lectures about the Koran and the Islamic prophet
Mohammed. Their curriculum includes some
mathematics and geography but little else. Critics
say the schools are teaching intolerance.

"These schools are providing an education which is
basically unchanged from the 11th century," says
Islamic analyst Pervez Hoodboy. He says they
produce "a student with a particular mindset, one
who does not question and who can be easily
motivated into fighting to the death."

Pakistani officials, while insisting that militant
Muslims represent only 15% of Pakistan's 140
million people, fear that the actions of the
madrassa students could destabilize the government,
which is led by a man who took power in a military
coup 2 years ago. Fearing an uprising mobilized by
the madrassas, the government has not cracked down
on the schools.

"The biggest danger for Pakistan is from young,
disillusioned and angry Pakistanis, many of them
poor and jobless, who may be driven to join the
radicals in a jihad," says former Pakistani army
chief of staff Mirza Aslam Baig. "Some of the
madrassas are breeding grounds for this
radicalism."

Lately, lectures on the Koran at Haqquania and the
moderate Dar-ul-Alloon Sarhad madrassa have given
way to heated discussions about impending U.S.
military action. Students and faculty at the
madrassas demand that the United States make public
the evidence it has proving bin Laden's involvement
in the terrorist attacks earlier this month in the
USA.

"How can you convict someone without presenting
evidence or witnesses against the alleged culprit?"
asks Khalid Ahmad Banouri, chancellor at
Dar-ul-Alloon Sarhad. Surrounded by more than a
dozen other Muslim clerics, he sits on a large
Oriental carpet in a courtyard of the school. "It
makes many Muslims believe that, despite what
President Bush says, this attack will be on Muslims
and Islam itself."

The expected assault on Afghanistan is just the
latest act by the United States, Banouri says. He
says America has implemented a foreign policy based
on hypocrisy and self-serving interests:

* He ridicules U.S. support for Israel, which he
accuses of brutalizing Palestinians and illegally
occupying the West Bank of the Jordan River.

* He blasts U.S.-backed economic sanctions on Iraq,
which he says are causing thousands of Iraqi women
and children to starve to death.

* He and others here also are furious that
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to
share intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden.
And they are angry that Musharraf will allow U.S.
fighters to fly through Pakistani airspace on their
way to attack targets in Afghanistan.

At the Haqquania madrassa, a student who says he
has just attended one of bin Laden's training camps
pulls out a training manual, called the
"encyclopedia," which U.S. officials say is used at
the camps in Afghanistan. "Now listen, American,
and listen well," says Hussain Zaeef, 21. He reads
from Page 12 of the manual: " 'Bomb their embassies
and vital economic centers.' That's what I will do
to you and your country. I will get your children.
I will get their playgrounds. I will get their
schools, too. I will get all of you."

Tempers then flare. Several students begin yelling
at once, pointing their fingers and gesturing
wildly.

One yells out the name of Mohammed Atta, an alleged
bin Laden associate believed to have hijacked one
of the two jets that crashed into the World Trade
Center. Another says he will "kill more than Atta."

A third student then unfolds a picture of the Sears
Tower in Chicago. "This one is mine," he says.

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Keep the Faith!

M&M Man