"We call on all the Muslim and Arab peoples to stand by their brethren in Palestine and Lebanon and ... support them by all moral and material means available and in keeping with Islamic rules," said a statement signed by 169 Muslim preachers, academics and politicians from Arab and Muslim countries. Urging Muslims all over the world to cast aside any difference and support the Palestinian and Lebanese people, the scholars said that Muslim governments should "disavow any political or economic ties ... with the Israeli enemy and to drop any illusions of peace with (Israel) … which have brought our nation nothing but killing, destruction and shame."

The statement also said that Muslim leaders should obey edicts or fatwas by religious authorities "prohibiting recognition of the Zionist state or the surrender of one inch of Palestine" to Israel, adding that Muslim governments "should free themselves from subservience except to God". Israel "could not have continued to exist and engage in aggression had it not been for massive American support, which has reached an unprecedented level of insolence and ... contempt for our nation," the statement noted.

The signatories also urged "wise Jews in the world and the wise and free among the American people ... not to allow your reckless (rulers) to .... destroy your future relations with the Muslim peoples." "We are advocates of freedom, justice and ... peace, and we stretch out our hands to anyone who believes in this," they said in the statement. Saudi preacher Awadh al-Qarni, one of the signatories, said that the statement has been sent to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Arab League and the European Union.

More than 1,000 Lebanese people, most of them civilians, have been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since Israel launched its deadly offensive in Lebanon. A separate Israeli assault in the Gaza Strip has claimed the lives of more than 140 Palestinians, mostly civilians.

German Muslims stage anti-Israel rally

The continuing Israeli offensives in Lebanon and Gaza angered Muslims all over the world. In Germany, more than 2,000 Muslims held a rally in the northern city of Hamburg yesterday to denounce Israel's massacres in Lebanon and Gaza, and express full support for the defenseless people in both countries as well as the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.

There are about five million Muslims living in Germany, mainly from Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia. A recent study by the Central Islam-Institute in the German city of Soest showed that more Germans are converting to Islam, according to the World Net Daily. The institute says the number of Muslim converts have been rising in recent years, with more than 4,000 Germans embracing Islam last year alone.

Source: Islamonline.com