Lebanon Cleric Attacks Falwell's Slur of Mohammad

A leading Shi'ite Muslim religious authority urged Muslims on Saturday to confront what he called an attack on Islam in U.S. preacher Jerry Falwell's reference to the prophet Mohammad as a "terrorist".

In a statement, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah said Falwell's remarks reflected the thinking of President Bush and his backers among the staunchly pro-Israeli U.S. Christian Right.

"All Muslims must make a stand against this attack on Islam, its prophet, and Muslims themselves", Fadlallah said. He stopped short of urging a violent reaction: "We do not desire physical violence against this person and those who share his views, including President Bush, who belongs to Zionized Christianity, but... to stand up to this oppressive campaign against Islam and Muslims."

Falwell drew condemnation from Britain and Iran by telling CBS News this week in an interview: "I think Mohammad was a terrorist."

Fadlallah, a former spiritual mentor to Lebanon's anti-Israel Hizbollah guerrillas and an implacable foe of U.S. policy in the Middle East, said Falwell's remarks hinted at the U.S. administration's bias toward Israel.

"If a preacher, or anyone else, spoke about Judaism and Zionist massacres in Palestine... would the U.S. administration permit this? If one mentioned the crimes of Zionism and Judaism, they would accuse him of anti-Semitism", he said.

In India, two people were killed on Saturday and five others on Friday as Hindus and Muslims clashed in fighting sparked by reaction to the Falwell remarks in the western town of Solapua, 280 miles from Bombay.