In sermons and marches, Middle East condemns U.S. attacks

Associated Press WriterTEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- More than 20,000 people streamed through Tehran Friday in the country's largest anti-Western demonstration since the United States began airstrikes on Afghanistan, and Muslim preachers across the Middle East called for an end to the bombing.

Effigies of President Bush and anti-American signs -- "America is a great evil" and "Curse the USA" -- were carried by the Iranian crowd from the city's main mosque to the local office of the Palestinian Authority.

Even sharper calls came from the volunteer militia, or basiji, who chanted their desire to join a holy war against the United States and its allies.

Such passions could rattle the Iranian government, which is trying to juggle different objectives concerning Afghanistan, now home to terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden. The U.S. attacks are aimed at forcing Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to surrender the Saudi exile.

Iran's Islamic government has helped arm the anti-Taliban northern alliance. But Iranian leaders have condemned the U.S.-led attacks. They worry that a prolonged conflict could send waves of refugees toward Iran, and possibly draw in Iranian groups, such as the basiji corps and other hard-line factions.

Earlier, during the prayer sermon at the mosque, Ayatollah Mohammad Kashani claimed the United States seeks "regional domination" through its anti-terrorism campaign.

Similar sermons were delivered across the Middle East, where people thronged mosques for the Friday prayers and the sermons, which mark the Muslim holy day and often reflect popular sentiments.

Thousands of Palestinians held anti-American marches in the West Bank on Friday.

In Ramallah, Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti led 1,000 marchers who chanted "Bin Laden, bin Laden" and "Bush is the father of terrorism." And about 2,000 Palestinians took part in a march in Nablus that was dominated by the Islamic militant group Hamas.

"America is a monster when it is shelling Kabul," the Palestinian protesters chanted.

In Iraq, the imam, or preacher, of an important Baghdad mosque nearly collapsed during an tearful sermon against the United States. His listeners wept as well.

"It is either Islam or no Islam," said Sheik Abdel Latif Humaim, the imam of Baghdad's al-Adham Mosque.

"We are facing another crusade led by the evil America," he told about 800 men packed inside the mosque compound. Another 1,000 men assembled outside in the hot sun, listening to the sermon broadcast on loudspeakers.

Even in Arab states like Jordan and Egypt, whose governments are U.S. allies, the sermons were harsh, reflecting widespread anger at the United States.

Sheik Thamer Al-Kuboj of Hara'a mosque in Amman, Jordan's capital, described the U.S. actions as a "savage attack" that he said also threatened Palestinians and Iraq.

In Damascus, the Syrian capital, the government-appointed cleric, Sheik Ahmad Kiftaro, said Islam is a religion of peace.

"At the time that I denounce terrorism, I say that terrorism can't be combatted by waging war against a peaceful people and displacing the people, killing their children and their women and bombarding their cities and villages."

In several small mosques in San'a, Yemen's capital, clerics called + President Bush the leader of a new crusade.

At one small mosque in the Omani capital, Muscat, the prayer leader said Islam would fortify and make victorious the "mujahedeen" fighting around the world.

In the Egyptian capital of Cairo, about 4,000 people attended the prayers at the main Al-Azhar mosque as hundreds of anti-riot police and armored vans surrounded the mosque to prevent demonstrations.

In Lebanon, several Islamic groups held a rally in the northern city of Tripoli with people carrying pictures of bin Laden and chanting slogans like "Osama, our beloved, strike against Tel Aviv."