Muslims Told To Withdraw U.S. Assets
Saturday August 31, 2002 11:00 AM
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Muslims everywhere should withdraw their money from U.S. markets because those funds may be frozen or confiscated, Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric said in a sermon.
Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah also warned worshippers gathered for Friday prayers in a Beirut suburb that a possible U.S. attack on Iraq was designed to assert America's control of oil in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Fadlallah's sermon came days after a lawyer for 700 relatives of Sept. 11 victims filed a $1 trillion lawsuit against the Saudi and Sudanese governments, as well as members of Saudi royal family, banks and charities. It contends that they financed the plot in which some 3,000 people died.
``We must change our mentality in the political, economic and security dealings with America, especially by withdrawing Arab and Islamic investments in America because new laws there have started to represent dangers of freezing and confiscating under decisions resulting from Sept. 11,'' Fadlallah said.
The Financial Times reported earlier this month that Saudi investors have withdrawn $200 billion from U.S. financial markets in recent weeks. The report was denied by Saudi billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a nephew of Saudi King Fahd, who said that withdrawing such an amount from American markets would have caused a shockwave in the United States.
Fadlallah, 67, is a senior Shiite religious authority and a harsh critic of U.S. policies in the Middle East, a region where many Arabs view America as being biased toward Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians.
On Aug. 12, Fadlallah issued a Fatwa, or religious edict, banning Muslims from assisting the United States and its allies if they attack Iraq.
guardian.co.uk
EDIT: also at BBC
Lebanese cleric says drop US investments
Lebanon's most influential Shia cleric has called on Muslims and Arabs to withdraw their US investments, warning that they might be frozen.
Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah was speaking at weekly prayers.
"There has to be a change of mindset in ... dealings with America, particularly by withdrawing Arab and Islamic assets from US investments because of new laws, which represent a danger of freezing or confiscation under decisions that spring from September 11," he said.
His call follows threats last week by Saudi Arabian investors that they might withdraw some of the $600bn (£388bn) they have invested in the US.
The Saudis were responding to a $1,000bn lawsuit filled in the US accusing members of the royal family and Islamic charities and banks of financing Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Sheikh Fadlallah was, for several years, a leading figure in the Hezbollah movement and a significant link between Lebanese Shi'a and the revolutionary leadership in Iran.
'Watch' America
He also told worshippers at Friday prayers that the US was bankrolling Israel's military campaign against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
"The American cover for Israel's invasion of Palestinian cities is strong, America financially supports Israeli military actions against Palestinians," he said.
Anti-American sentiment is also high in the Arab world because of US threats to take further military action against Iraq.
"The Arab and Islamic people must study the hidden background to the American action, which will not stop in Iraqi territory but will go on to contain and control all that it can ... in order to affirm American leadership of the sources of oil in the region and the world," said Sheikh Fadlallah.
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