DOHA, Qatar (AP) - U.S.-led strikes have begun, but Muslim leaders question whether the evidence supports the onslaught on Afghanistan or if ``innocent civilians'' are being caught up in the war on terrorism.
Presiding over an Organization of the Islamic Conference emergency session Wednesday, Qatar's Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani condemned the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.
However, he said retaliation ``should not extend to any but those who carried out those attacks. This requires providing conclusive evidence against the culprits.''
The emir, in apparent criticism of U.S. President George W. Bush's global anti-terrorism campaign, said that dialogue was the best means to resolve conflicts.
``The Islamic world was among the first to have called for the dialogue of civilizations ... instead of falling into conflicting sects, camps and clashing dichotomies based on the principle of 'If you are not on my side, then you are against me,''' Sheik Hamad said.
Sheik Hamad - who earlier announced Qatar's plan to donate dlrs 10 million for a fund to help Afghans - also called for a distinction to be made between terrorism and a people's ``legitimate right to defend their freedom and self-determination.''
This was an apparent reference to the raging Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which in 12 months of fighting has killed 677 people on the Palestinian side and 184 people on the Israeli side.
In addition to Qatar's contribution to the Afghan aid fund, Saudi Arabia donated dlrs 10 million, the United Arab Emirates dlrs 3 million and Oman dlrs 1 million.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, speaking at the Doha meeting, warned that the world should not focus solely on the Sept. 11 attacks aftermath and forget about the Palestinian-Israeli violence.
The ministers ended their meeting later Wednesday, expressing in the final communique the Islamic conference's willingness to participate in a U.N.-led effort ``to define terrorism without selection or double standards and by treating its causes and eradicating its roots.''
While condemning terrorism, it also called for holding a global anti-terrorism conference to be held.
The communique did not reiterate the Qatari emir's call for the U.S. to produce evidence related to the attacks.
However, the communique rejected ``targeting any Islamic or Arab state under the pretext of fighting terrorism'' and expressed its concern over the death of Afghan civilians as a result of the U.S. strikes.
Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa told The Associated Press that targeting Arab or Muslim states is ``forbidden.'' ``It was reaffirmed that the conference rejected outright targeting of any Arab or Muslim state and this means that all Arabs and Muslims will stand with the country that is attacked,'' he said.
Representatives of the Taliban or the U.N. and U.S.-recognized government-in-exile of former Afghan leader Burhanuddin Rabbani did not attend the conference, despite earlier speculation that they would.
Arab leaders have both condemned the terror attacks that killed more than 5,000 people in the United States and expressed support for a campaign against terrorism.
There is concern, however, over the possibility of U.S. strikes widening to include Arab countries.
The communique for foreign ministers of the 56-member Islamic conference also rejected ``linking terrorism to the Arab and Muslim people's rights, including the Palestinian and Lebanese people's right to self-determination, self-defense and resisting Israeli and foreign occupation and aggression.''
Similar language comes out of Arab and Islamic conferences but it refers to only Israel and its occupation of Palestinian territories.
The United States told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that it may have to attack countries other than Afghanistan to root out terrorism.
The United States and Britain began their strikes after Afghanistan's ruling Taliban refused to hand over Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident who is the chief suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks and who lives in Afghanistan.