PA sermon:Iraqi resistance against US "is legitimate resistance not
terrorism"
[FBIS (US Government service) Translated Excerpt]
[With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm ]

[IMRA: Shaykh Ikrimah Sabri was appointed by Arafat]

Ramallah Voice of Palestine, official radio station of the Palestinian
Authority, carries at 1000 GMT on May 14 2004 a live sermon from Al-Aqsa
Mosque. Shaykh Ikrimah Sabri, "mufti of Jerusalem and all Palestine" and
chairman of the Higher Islamic Council, delivers the sermon, which he begins
by condemning "the criminal British and US forces" for their "lowly acts"
against human dignity in Iraqi prisons. These are the first signs of the
"fall of the capitalist system," he says.

The imam calls for closing Islamic ranks against all "criminal
occupiers." He hails the brave Iraqi resistance against these occupiers. He
says: "This is legitimate resistance not terrorism or extremism. Terrorism
is embodied by the occupiers themselves."

The mufti says: "It is painful and shameful for Arab and Islamic regimes
to resort to the United Nations for international forces to protect people
in Iraq, Chechnya, and Palestine. The question is why don't these regimes
themselves protect Arab and Islamic states that are being exposed to
genocide, occupation, and colonialism?"

Concluding, his first sermon, the mufti says: "O Muslims, O best nation
that came to mankind, our great Islam is the religion of dignity, honor, and
culture. It calls for unity, amity, cohesion, and equality. It calls for
supporting the oppressed and defending the weak, poor, and needy. It calls
for their protection and not their abandonment. Muslims must stand one rank
against injustice, aggression, occupation, and colonialism."