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Islamic
web site in the
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Disclaimer: Views expressed are not necessarily
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SMILE!
'Comical' Ari says he never told a lie!
[For
Pakistani
readers, Ari was
Bush's
Jewish
spokesman, now about to
retire.]
[That's not anti-semitism: just a fact, though an
awkward one.]
[CIA
Director Tenet has taken the rap for
President Bush's false statement
that Saddam was getting uranium from Niger. Blair
of "Great" Britain is a more
practiced liar. He is still insisting that the
'uranium from Niger' story was
true! Also, Blair has been unmasked for his claim
of "Saddam can use WMDs in 45
minutes."]
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NIGERIANS
Demonstrate AGAINST BUSH after Juma
Prayers
[Exclusive to New Trend]
As widely reported in the
media,
Bush did not
receive
the acclaimed reception in Nigeria among the
masses.
The Muslims especially demonstrated against the
visit
after Friday prayers in the city of Kano. Prayer
sessions were held against the visit by many
Islamic
groups across the country.
The visit was teleguided as he visited only
select
places that could not demonstrate to him the
frustration of the ordinary Nigerian.
I am sure he did not enjoy the visit.
Bissalam,
Alhaji Asheikh.
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AFP Reports: Bush Would Be Shocked if he Visited
Muslim Nigeria
The People's Hero Is Osama Bin Laden - And Its No
Secret!
Nigerians See Bush Involved in a War on Islam
[Excerpted from ASL]
But if Bush’s tight schedule had allowed him time
to venture beyond the airy,
ultra-modern capital to the dusty streets of
Kano, he would have come upon a
surprisingly widespread enthusiasm for his most
feared enemy.
Saudi militant Osama bin Laden’s now familiar
smile beams out from posters
and T-shirts dotted around the bus stops and
markets of this sprawling,
mainly-Muslim city, as of he were a football star
or a singer.
Many Muslims in Kano held parties to celebrate
the
September 11 attacks
and
now, almost two years later, the man who ordered
the kamikaze hijackers into
action is still a hero to many of the people
here.
Rabi’u Musa is one of many bus drivers in the
Malam Kato motor park to have a
big portrait of the fugitive Islamist on his rear
windscreen.
"I’m proud of Osama. He is a hero who has proved
that America is not the
invincible superpower it made the world believe,"
the 30-year-old told AFP on
Wednesday while waiting for passengers.
There has never been a terrorist attack against
US
interests in Nigeria.
There are large Nigerian communities in the
United States, and strong cultural
links between the two very different countries.
Nigerian oil exports to the United States account
for almost three quarters
of the country’s foreign exchange revenue.
Nigeria receives US military aid and
hosts many US companies.
And yet despite these promising links, on the eve
of Bush’s historic visit
Bin Laden T-shirts and posters are far outselling
Stars and Stripes flags on the
streets of Kano.
"We sell a lot of Osama posters. People like him.
He is a hero," said Tukur
Sani, a 24-year-old stallholder, as he dusted
down his stock in front of an
admiring cluster of children. Shoe salesman
Sanusi Ibrahim, 27, wears his green
Bin Laden T-shirt with pride as he serves
customers in Kofar Wambai market.
"Whatever propaganda America feeds the world
against Osama, he remains a hero
and he will continue to shame America and bring
her to her knees," he
declares cheerfully.
Bin Laden has himself attempted to tap into
Nigerian anti-Americanism in one
of his famous taped broadcasts on
al-Jazeera,
one
of Kano’s most popular
satellite television networks. He branded
Obasanjo’s pro-US government "apostate"
and called on Muslims to rebel. As yet there is
little or no evidence that any
Nigerians are ready for
"martyrdom"
in an Al
Qaeda style violent jihad.
But Bin Laden’s self-reinvention — from being the
privileged son of a
building tycoon to the cave-dwelling champion of
the masses — has caught the
imagination here in a way that Bush will be
hard-pressed to match.
Much of Kano’s anti-Americanism can be traced to
the preaching of its
religious leaders who are sure to use the weekly
Friday prayers that coincide with
Bush’s visit to stir up more anger.
"America’s hatred of Islam is not hidden, and
Bush’s intention is to extend
his fight against Islam to Africa which is known
as a centre of Islam,"
Mohammad Bn Uthman, a radical Muslim cleric, told
AFP. "His main mission here is to
propagate the idea to African leaders, who are
his stooges," he said.
Bn Uthman may be a radical even by the fiery
standard of Nigerian preachers,
but his message finds a large echo on the street.
And the distrust of America
is not a just the result of the imam’s rhetoric;
many Nigerians have listened
to what Bush has to say. Kamilu Nasir, an
illiterate 32-year-old grocer,
listened to a speech the US leader made on the
first leg of his African journey. He
was unimpressed.
"I listened to the radio translation of Bush’s
speech in Senegal on Wednesday
and the speech focused on the war against
terrorism and on oil," Nasir said,
picking at his kola nut stained teeth with a
match stick. "His mission is to
launch his war against Islam in Africa and also
look for ways to exploit our
oil resources," he said. —AFP
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2003-07-13 Sun 17:03ct