Date:06/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/06/stories/2008120656641400.htm

International

Hizbollah suspects Takfiri extremists

Atul Aneja

DUBAI: The Lebanese group Hizbollah has roundly condemned the Mumbai terror attacks but has warned that the U.S. could play a negative role in the region in its aftermath.

In a statement released by the Lebanese News Agency, attributed to Sayyid Nawwaf al-Musawi, Hizbollah’s international relations head, the group said the individuals who carried out the Mumbai strikes were of Takfiri ideological lineage. Analysts say Takfiris are extremists who view the entire non-Muslim world as a battleground, with the majority of Muslims also being termed infidels.

The Hizbollah said it rejected “Takfiri ideas which makes others targets of killing and aggression”. “We said that the deadly Takfiri thought has been tearing apart the body of the Muslim community, inflicted massacres on them and shedding much of their blood.”

Hizbollah contrasted the Takfiri ideas to “genuine Islamic principles [that] consider others either brothers in religion or partners in God’s creation, affiliated to the same human race.”

The statement said both India and Pakistan need to be watchful as the U.S. could take advantage of the Mumbai attacks to undermine their sovereignty. “India has been one of the three founder-states of the Non-Aligned Movement, which sought to follow a path that is independent from the hegemony of the arrogant. We have noted that these kinds of attacks that struck India are often a prelude to U.S. security and military interference that confiscates the sovereignty of states at the pretext of fighting terrorism. These attacks will be an opportunity for the U.S. Administration to blackmail both Pakistan and India and infringe on their sovereignty.”

Hizbollahwarned that vigilance was necessary to ensure that Israelis do not “inundate states with misleading intelligence as well as infiltrate their security and military establishments.” It lauded the “Indian authorities’ rejection of the Israeli attempts to violate their sovereignty and security through military and security intervention.”