Osama bin Laden, the Saudi dissident wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, urged hard-line Islamic activists Wednesday to prepare the next generation for jihad, or holy war, reported The Associated Press, as published in USA Today online edition Thursday.
Bin Laden's statement was issued during a convention where some 200,000 students from Muslim nations worldwide celebrated the teaching of an Islamic school that inspired Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia.
Dar-ul-Uloom, the 143-year-old school in Deoband, India, is the ideological inspiration of the Taliban, as well as most hard-line Islamic groups in Pakistan, including the conference organizers, Jamiat-e-Ulema or Organization of Islamic clerics.
Bin Laden urged wealthy Muslims to support the Taliban with money to be used to rebuild their war-shattered nation. His statement, which was not read aloud at the convention, also urged the new generation to train for holy war, said the report.
"Issue a call to the young generation to get ready for the holy war and to prepare for that in Afghanistan because jihad in this time of crisis for Muslims is an obligation of all Muslims," he said in the Arabic-language statement. "I appeal to you to teach Muslims that there is no honor except in jihad in the way of God."
In a speech in Bishawar, Pakistan Tuesday, bin Laden has pledged his allegiance to the reclusive leader of the ruling Taliban militia in Afghanistan, the Doha-based Al-Jazeera satellite television channel said Monday.
The station broadcasted an exclusive footage of the speech on Thursday.
Bin Laden said in a speech to a meeting in the northern Pakistani province that he had "pledged allegiance to Mullah Mohammad Omar, commander of the believers.”
The billionaire Saudi dissident also called on the people attending the meeting, organized by Muslim schools in the region, "to support the Islamic emirate in Afghanistan by all means."
"We must urge both the young to sacrifice their soul for Afghanistan by taking up jihad (Islamic holy war) and the rich to give their money to this emirate," Bin Laden said.
He also called on Muslim scholars to "issue fatwas (religious rulings) on the legitimacy of this emirate," at the same time welcoming Mullah Omar's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in central Afghanistan last month.
The Taliban regime controls 90 percent of Afghan territory including the capital Kabul, forming a hardline Islamic state recognized only by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Bin Laden, believed to have been hiding in Afghanistan since 1996, is wanted by Washington in connection with the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which left 220 people dead – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
