A Pakistani debate over holy war

Thousands of angry demonstrators - urged on by Osama bin Laden - marched throughout Pakistan yesterday, calling for a jihad against the United States.

"We incite our Muslim brothers in Pakistan to deter ... American crusaders from invading Pakistan and Afghanistan," Qatar's al-Jazeera television quoted Mr. bin Laden as saying.

The word jihad or holy war is on the lips of many Muslims - in the mosques, religious schools, and on the dusty streets of northwestern Pakistan.

But just what interpretation of jihad the Islamic communities will embrace in the current crisis may be critical to the survival of the Pakistani government - and the level of support or resistance US forces may meet - in the coming days and months.

"Pakistan is about to commit a great blunder by allowing the US to use its bases," says Rashid Ahmad at the Sheikh Zayed Islamic Center in Peshawar. "The Koran makes it clear that one Muslim cannot be involved in the bloodshed of a brother Muslim. Given the current circumstances, if the US uses Pakistani ter-

ritory to kill other Muslims, this is strictly prohibited. We cannot be involved in this kind of killing, even if we are compelled to be involved by a super power like the USA."

Professor Ahmad contends that to understand the Islamic jihad one must distinguish between the acts of individuals and the idea or concept described in the Koran.

"Jihad" means "struggle," which can mean different things - from something as simple as struggling to be a better person to holy war. Islamic scholars have debated the meaning for centuries. The word "qital" means "battle," he says, sitting at a table with several fellow scholars. "It is legitimate to begin a jihad only when a war is imposed on you from outside.

"In normal cases, an Islamic state is the only grouping that can announce and prosecute a jihad," he says. "But in the case that Allah's law is broken, and a state is not following the Koran correctly, individuals, themselves, can rise up against that state in a jihad."

Other tribal leaders and religious scholars believe that "outsiders" like bin Laden have twisted the Koran's sacred idea of jihad, which they argue is best viewed as a defensive war that can only be fought against a "foreign occupier."

Fellow professors and two students of Islamic studies nod thoughtfully when Professor Ahmad continues: "Whoever rises up in this case against Pakistan and the United States will be justified in fighting a jihad."

On the other hand, both students and teachers insist that they do not agree that the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had anything to do with an Islamic jihad. They all insist that the killing of innocents is not in keeping with the precepts of Islam.

There are also plenty of local residents, most of them not associated with the province's more radical-minded religious schools, who argue that the concept of jihad in both Afghanistan and Pakistan has been co-opted by extremists.

But the prospect of American forces using Pakistan's soil to possibly launch a war against an Islamic state appears to already be radicalizing local views of what the coming jihad will be.

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