TARO JABBA, Pakistan - A rally of more than 100,000 Muslims in northwestern Pakistan condemned international sanctions against Islamic nations Wednesday and demanded the pullout of Western forces from Saudi Arabia.
The three-day conference, which attracted more than 100,000 Sunni Muslim men, also slammed the United States and its allies as being "anti-human" and "anti-Islam."
"The sanctions against Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan are open aggression against Muslims, they should be immediately lifted," said its resolution, approved by the men waving their hands in the air.
"The presence of American and European armed forces in Saudi Arabia is the biggest tragedy of our times. We demand from our Arab brothers that they should arrange the removal of these forces," said the resolution, which was greeted by loud cheers.
The gathering at Taro Jabba, seven miles west of the city of Peshawar near the Afghan border, was organized by the orthodox Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI) party and included representatives from Afghanistan's ruling Taliban and Kashmiri militant groups.
A Pakistani seminary run by JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has produced several senior members of the Taliban, the strict Islamic movement controlling most of Afghanistan.
Wednesday saw the conclusion of the conference, which marked the 150th anniversary of the famous Deoband Islamic seminary in neighboring India.
Deoband produced some renowned Muslim scholars who resisted British rule in India, which ended with independence and partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947.
PEACE BEGETS PEACE
Emotionally-charged participants at the rally, the largest public gathering since General Pervez Musharraf led a bloodless coup in October 1999, chanted slogans against the United States and demanded an end to the secular state in Pakistan.
"War will continue until the destruction of America," they chanted.
"Who will save Pakistan -- Taliban, Taliban," they shouted in reference to bids to impose Shariah, or Muslim, law in Pakistan.
A recorded message from the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar urged Muslim unity against the "infidel world."
Musharraf's regime has banned public rallies since March 2000 but has not stopped some religious groups from staging them, drawing a charge of bias against main liberal opposition parties.
The Taro Jabba rally followed the government's biggest crackdown against political parties when it detained hundreds of activists and the entire leadership of the main opposition Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to block a rally planned for March 23.
11:20 04-11-01
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