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Muslims urge embassy shutdown
06/04/2003 13:00 - (SA)
Nairobi - The Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (SUPKEM) has called on the government to close down the US and British embassies in Nairobi in protest at the two countries' invasion of Iraq, SUPKEM's chairperson said on Sunday.
"We urge the government to shut the US and British embassies in Kenya because these two nations have resorted to dictatorial behaviour that is meant to hurt Muslims around the world," SUPKEM's chairman Abdulghafur al-Busaidy said.
Britain and US are "systematically persecuting Muslims on the pretext of fighting terrorism and uprooting dictators from leadership yet they are the real dictators," said al-Busaidy.
"The September 11 tragedy does not give the right to America to hate Arabs and Islam," he added.
He said SUPKEM had been very worried by the intimidation of Kenyan Muslims by the Kenyan police as a result of allegations by the FBI, a reference to the frequent detention of Muslims by investigators probing last November's bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in the port city of Mombasa.
Al-Busaidy condemned the US-led coalition waging war against Iraq.
"The barbaric aggression by (US President) George W Bush and his 'brother' (Britain's) Tony Blair against the Iraq people is killing innocent women, elderly people and infants," he said.
He urged Kenya to ignore calls by the US to close down the Iraqi diplomatic mission in Nairobi. The Kenyan government is "studying" that request, and has not yet taken its decision, the minister of Foreign affairs, Kalonzo Musyoka, recently said.
The US has asked governments worldwide to sever ties with the Baghdad regime by shutting down its embassies and freeze their assets until new authorities are in power in Iraq. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA
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