: Mood Is Grim Among Muslims On Eve Of Iraq War

Despite massive protests, overwhelming world opinion, and even a threatened UN Security Council veto, it looks like the US is going to meet its deadline for war on Iraq with, uh, military precision. Meanwhile, the Muslim world remains divided. Even though the vast majority of the world’s Muslims are opposed to war w/Iraq and are taking a harder line as war approaches, Muslim countries are offering little resistance, and are even passively (Pakistan’s Security Council fence-sitting) or actively (via loaned bases in the Gulf) supporting the war effort. In the UK, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was grilled by Muslim leaders, and Muslim voters prepared to punish certain Labour MPs for supporting war. The “Muslim street” in Europe is speaking out as well. Here in the US, the FBI and major Muslim communities have kissed and made up – at least in public – to head off the expected rise in hate crimes once war starts. As for the war itself, Muslim opinion is complex. Indeed, Muslims are playing an active role in the anti-war movement, but Iraqi-Americans are actively supporting it. “The Muslim or Arab mind is divided,” says Haider Bhuiyan, grade-school principal of the Islamic Academy of Alabama. “No concerned or fair-minded Muslim can support Saddam Hussein. But at the same time, they don’t want war to break out and for people to be killed.” Muslims are turning to prayer (even in the legislature of Bush’s home state) in these last few hours. “We are just keeping our trust in Allah,” said Bhuiyan, “whether war breaks out or not.”

Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of altmuslim.com.