KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Muslims began celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the biggest festival in the Islamic calendar, on Thursday with rising anti-American sentiments and a growing sense of alienation over their place in the world.
Just over a year after the September 11 attacks on the United States launched by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, Muslims the world over have recoiled at western characterisations associating them with militancy.
"Islam is under siege since September 11, they make us a punching bag...how long we can sustain this depends on the political will of Muslim governments around the world," Dzulkifli Ahmad, a member of the conservative Parti Islam se-Malaysia's central committee, told Reuters in Kuala Lumpur.
"We have had such bad publicity that people are taking swipes at us. We are being psychologically pressured."
The timing of Eid, the feasting that marks the climax of the holy month of Ramadan, differs across regions according to the sighting of the new moon.
Saudi Arabia, the cradle of Islam, began celebrating on Thursday along with several other Gulf countries, while many Asian nations, where the majority of the world's 1.2 billion Muslims live will wait until Friday to mark the end of a month of fasting and restraint from other worldly pleasures.
In Jakarta, Indonesian police allowed Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, said to be the spiritual leader of a militant group responsible for the bombings on the resort island of Bali, to attend Eid prayers.
The Bali blasts on October 12 killed over 180 mostly western tourists, and was the worst act of terror since the attacks on New York and Washington.
The rest of Indonesia starts the Eid on Friday, but Bashir, an admirer of bin Laden, preaches a Wahabi strain of the religion which adheres strictly to the laws and teachings of the Prophet Mohamad and his followers in the first centuries of Islam.
Several hundred Muslims, some with vests bearing the word
"Mujahidin" prayed with Bashir under the watchful eyes of policemen at a car park at the police hospital in Jakarta.
Indonesia had hitherto been known for its mild form of Islam practised by the vast majority in the world's most-populous Muslim nation, and some people yearned for the days when the former dictator Suharto kept religious militants in check.
"It was better during Pak Harto's (Suharto's) time. The police are not so strong now and give too much freedom to these extremists," said Pak Heri, a Muslim taxi driver.
U.S. MESSAGE MISUNDERSTOOD
Muslims' everyday greeting "Peace be with you" has become an urgent wish as they shudder at the thought of Washington declaring another war on Iraq, and are fed daily images of Palestinian suffering.
The Pew Global Attitudes Survey, conducted in 44 countries and headed by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, revealed widespread anti-American sentiment and growing unease about the state of the world.
The survey, which polled 38,000 people and was released on Wednesday, showed many Muslims endorsed use of violence in defence of Islam, with significant percentages from West Africa to Southeast Asia saying suicide bombing was justifiable.
"I hope the message that we fight not a religion, but a group of fanatics which have hijacked a religion, is getting through," President George W. Bush told reporters after the survey.