ZARIA, Nigeria, Sept 27 (AFP) -Posters and bumper stickers of Osama bin Laden attest to his popularity in this northern Nigerian town, but the two most radical Islamic leaders in Africa's most populous country voice moderation.
Dressed in flowing black and white robes, and wearing a brilliant white turban, Ibraheem Zakzaky, is the leader of the 23-year-old Islamic Movement in Nigeria and has spent a total of nine years over the past two decades for his radicalism
"In the Islamic Movement, we would like to send our wholehearted condolences to the people of the United States for the tragedy of September 11," he said in an interview in the courtyard of his elegant home Thursday.
Zaria, an ancient town that is home to the best known university in northern Nigeria, has become a key centre for Islamic intellectuals in this country of more than 120 million people, roughly half of whom are Muslims.
The attacks on the United States were "a crime", he said, and "an injustice".
Osama bin Laden, the man identified by the United States as the likely organiser of the attacks was "by his utterances, a suspect", he agreed.
But he said that proof was needed and justice, not revenge against innocent Muslims, should be done.
"It was a crime. But it was a crime perpetrated by individuals and justice demands that those individuals should be tried and when found guilty they should be punished," Zakzaky said.
"Injustice has been done to America but it is not justice to commit another injustice."
The Islamic leader, a follower of the Shia sect, has shown his ability in the past to bring a million people out onto the streets in Nigeria, but said Thursday he hopes the United States will not now launch what he called "a war on all Muslims."
"The reaction, the effect it has here, depends on what the Americans do now. (US President George W.) Bush going to the mosque and saying that Islam is a religion of peace was good. Calling it a crusade was very offensive.
"There are some voices of sanity starting to be heard. But if they turn it into a war against Islam, it will radicalise the situation here," Zakzaky said.
Islam is already widely seen as on the rise in Nigeria, where 12 northern states have in the past two years introduced Islamic Sharia law, and tensions between Muslims and Christians frequently come to the surface, most recently in the city of Jos where over 500 died this month.
One of the main backers of that rise in Islam is Abubakar Mujahid, the bespectacled and studious leader of Ja'amatu Tajidmul Islami - the Movement for Islamic Revival.
Sitting cross-legged on a mat in an almost bare 12 foot by 10 foot white-washed room, his condemnations of the attacks in the United States are less fulsome than that of Zakzaky, an erstwhile mentor.
"Muslims in northern Nigeria sympathise with the innocent people who died but they feel that America deserved the blow because of its terrible foreign policies, its stand against Islam, its oppression of Muslims, its stand on Palestine," he said.
But despite the celebrations among his mainly Sunni supporters of the events of September 11, he too said they were wrong: "If America can give proof that it was Osama, then it will be justified" to attack him," he said.
"People here in Nigeria like Osama because they see him as a symbol of a Muslim standing up to the world bully, but it stops there. We might have demonstrations, but unless they go the cowboy way, it will not be more than that," he said.