LAHORE, Oct 7: JUP President Maulana Shah Ahmed Noorani appreciates the stand taken by Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran following the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York and says all three countries have tried to safeguard their respective national interests.

Talking to reporters here on Sunday, he said Pakistan was left with no option but to follow the course it had decided to pursue. He hoped that this policy would save not only Pakistan but also Afghanistan.

As for the Taliban government policy, the JUP leader said it was a course of 'greatness'. Iran, he said, had taken a right decision by disallowing the United States to use its territory for military strikes on Afghanistan.

The JUP chief rejected the assertion that the United States was going to wage a war against terrorism. He said in fact it was a war against Islam and the Muslims and President Bush had rightly described it as a 'crusade', though his spokesman had tried to dilute the impression subsequently.

The US president, Maulana Noorani said, had uttered the same words which were in his mind and he wanted to put the Muslims to sword as was the case some 800 years ago. But, he warned, the anti-Muslim designs would also lead to rebirth of Salahuddin Ayubi. Maulana Noorani said as for the Muslims, all US presidents had identical thinking whether it was Reagan, Clinton or incumbent Bush.

The US wanted to contain Islam but it wanted to unleash a war in a camouflaged manner. "They have changed the label on the bottle (to give the Muslims a wrong impression that they are the target)". He recalled that some yeas ago, Libyan leader Qadhafi was held responsible for every offence taking place in any part of the world. Then, the Sudan was targeted. Then came the turn of Iraqi President Saddam Husain. The people of Iraq have been suffering for the last one decade and US-UK planes were still bombing Iraq at any time of their liking.

Now, he said, the guns had been targeted at Afghanistan. In his opinion, the OIC should have activated itself immediately after attacks on Iraq. But, he regretted, that the Islamic countries failed to realize the sensitivity of the situation.

Maulana Noorani said that he believed that the Muslims could not be involved in the kind of sophisticated planning required to destroy the World Trade Centre or strike at the Pentagon. Replying to a question, the JUP leader confirmed that the four-member delegation constituted for a visit to Afghanistan had cancelled its programme for various reasons.

SEMINAR: Speaking at a seminar organized by the Lahore chapter of his party at the Lahore Press Club, Noorani asked people to boycott American, British and Indian products and warned that no foreign soldier would be tolerated on Pakistani soil.

Maulana Noorani said right now Afghanistan did not require mujahideen from outside because its own fighters were enough to tackle America for 100 years. He said small groups of people must assemble in front of all popular American food outlets to make their customers realize that the food had been prepared by 'haram' chicken and the money they were spending on buying it would be used for killing Muslims.

Explaining as to how Christians occupied Al Quds under King Richard, the Lion Hearted, and then were defeated by Salahuddin Ayubi, he said America was once again going for a crusade against Muslims under the pretext of a war on terrorism.

"The war is being launched to block Islam from taking roots in Europe and America. It is aimed at poisoning the hearts and souls of Christians against Muslims whose number has increased in their (Christians) homelands over the years." Noorani warned the US that like the former USSR it would not be able to come out of Afghanistan unscathed.

Talking to reporters later, he condemned the house arrest of JUI President Maulana Fazlur Rehman and a ban on him to enter Punjab. The seminar was also addressed by Gen K M Azhar, Allama Syed Shabbir Hashmi, Qari Zawwar Bahadur and others.