The San Diego Union-Tribune

September 29, 2001

A-1

In Pakistan protest, bin Laden hailed as hero
   Bush effigies, U.S. flag torched amid calls to 'unite and fight'

By MARCUS STERN 
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE 

PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- All of Peshawar loves Osama.

Or so it seems from yesterday's demonstrations. The man President Bush fingered as the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks -- Osama bin Laden -- has reached new heights of popularity here and in many parts of the Muslim world.

Yesterday, protesters thronged to a shabby bazaar in the heart of this ancient city, chanting, "Long live Osama." They burned an American flag and effigies of Bush.

"Osama take a step; we will follow," they chanted, as squads of riot police equipped with plastic shields and cane sticks stood nearby. Police with AK-47 assault rifles watched from rooftops of the Khyber Bazaar. Merchants drew down their metal doors.

While many in the crowd were followers of one of Pakistan's many religious political parties, others were boys, merchants and professionals.

Many condemned the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, but insisted that bin Laden could not have done it.

Remarkably, almost everyone interviewed offered the same alternative suspect: Israel.

Man after man, boy after boy declared bin Laden a hero fighting for Islam everywhere -- in Kashmir, Chechnya, Bosnia, Afghanistan.

But a terrorist? No, they said, adding that India is a terrorist. Israel is a terrorist. The United States is a terrorist. Bush is a terrorist. But not bin Laden.

It was the constant refrain.

Arsala Khan, an Afghan man who trucks almonds, pistachios and raisins from Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, to Peshawar, summed up the sentiment expressed publicly over and over again yesterday: "I love Osama."

Khan delivers his dried fruit and nuts to a merchant in Peshawar named Jalianzeb, who explained his passionate support for bin Laden this way: "He is fighting for the supremacy of Islam."

Friday is an important day of prayer for Muslims. It is a day when Muslims make a special effort to worship in a mosque.

Arbab Hayat Ullah, a Peshawar lawyer, was on his way to 1 p.m. prayers at the Mandi mosque. After the prayer session, there were speakers and then a march to the Khyber Bazaar.

As the call to prayer played over loudspeakers outside the mosque, Ullah compared Bush to one of England's historical figures -- Richard the Lion Hearted -- and bin Laden to the man he fought in the Crusades -- Sultan Salahudin Ayubir. 

Ullah warned that Bush's policies would lead to another historic clash between the Christian and Muslim worlds.

"We are 1 billion and we will unite and fight," he said. "If America wants a Crusade, we are ready."

Inside the mosque, the prayer began. When it was done, Mulana Shabbir Ahmad, a leader of one of Pakistan's religious political parties, delivered a fiery speech in which he told the worshippers that Muslims around the world were being victimized by the United States and Israel.

"We will take out their eyes," he vowed, before leading a chant traditionally used to start a military charge.

Men who had been kneeling row by row on the mosque floor and praying only moments before streamed out onto the street, chanting, "Long live Osama bin Laden. Down with the U.S.A."

Outside the mosque later, many of them posed with photos of bin Laden and flashed the victory sign.

They then paraded down a narrow street that smelled of green tea and shish kebab cooking over charcoal. Waving the flags of their various political parties, they made their way to the Khyber Bazaar. Men with black turbans -- the trademark of the ruling Taliban party, which is playing host to bin Laden in Afghanistan -- moved quickly through the parade like marshals.

"Down with Bush, the dog," a cluster of men chanted.

After thousands had spilled into the Khyber Bazaar, they burned an effigy of Bush adorned with horns and a red, white and blue hat. Then an American flag. Then a second effigy of Bush on a long pole. The flames shot high and the pole was waved back and forth and the figure attached to it beaten with long cane sticks until it disintegrated.

A few blocks away, a man named Maqsood sat in his small restaurant, the Sufi Nahari House, which is along the parade route. Not all of the people on the street proclaiming themselves ready for a holy war against the United States actually will do it, he said.

"These religious parties and the clerics will do it," Maqsood said. "But the common man, I doubt it."