M A I N   N E W S

Rahman asks USA to stop brute force
Rajeev Sharma
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 19
Pakistan firebrand clergy-politician Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman has blamed the USA for the anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world and advised Washington to change its policy of using the military option to resolve a crisis at the drop of a hat.

“The USA should take note of the anger in the Muslim world. The USA should realise this that there was no need of using brute force when things could be sorted out in a friendly way. America can cause a breakthrough by changing its policy. You cannot win hearts through force,” the visiting leader of Opposition of Pakistan’s National Assembly told The Tribune in an exclusive interview.

He refused to be drawn into a debate whether America’s most-sought after men like Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Mullah Omar were terrorists or Islamic heroes.

Maulana Rahman claimed that Al Qaida chief Laden and Taliban supremo Mullah Omar were “plain and simple men”.

“Why do you ask me whether Osama is a terrorist or a hero. You put this question to those who gave him these adjectives. I am not his advocate”, he said.

About Mullah Omar he said he had met him. “He is a very simple man. A man of few words who wants peace. A man easy to get along with. A man with no protocol. If you meet him you will wonder that this is the man that the world press has written so much about. His image is a media creation”, he said.