Spiritual leader urges Muslims to 'jihad'

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- The spiritual leader of the Palestinian Islamic militant group Hamas called on Muslims around the world to launch a holy war, or jihad, to liberate their countries from U.S. influence.

Sheik Ahmed Yassin made the comments in a letter published ahead of this month's Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, which commemorates God's provision of a ram to substitute for Abraham's sacrifice of his son.

"Sons of Islam everywhere, the jihad is a duty -- to establish the rule of Allah on earth and to liberate your countries and yourselves from America's domination and its Zionist allies, it is your battle -- either victory or martyrdom," Yassin said in the letter.

However, a Hamas spokesman said the militant group would confine its own activities to Israel and the Palestinian territories.

"Hamas' battle is against the Zionist occupation in the Palestinian land. Hamas has no desire to change its battlefield. Resistance in Palestine will continue until the final liberation of all the Palestinian lands," said the spokesman, Mahmoud Zahar.

Yassin, who is paraplegic and rarely leaves his home in Gaza City, castigated the Arab world and accused its leaders of abandoning the Palestinian cause.

"Where are the Muslim people's sponsors? Where are its kings? Where are its leaders? The Muslim people is calling upon you, Jerusalem is appealing to you, will anyone answer?" Yassin said in the letter.

Hamas has been responsible for a string of suicide bombings that has killed dozens of Israelis in the past 16 months. The bombers are revered as martyrs of the Palestinian uprising which erupted in September 2000. Yassin and other Muslim clerics have propagated the belief that whoever dies for their religion is rewarded in paradise.

Yassin attacked the United States for its campaign in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, calling the war "a terrorist offensive against the Muslim people in Afghanistan and Islamic resistance movements everywhere."

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat placed Yassin under house arrest as part of a crackdown on militants in December. After the collapse of a cease-fire declared by Arafat in mid-December, the Palestinian Authority has quietly allowed Yassin and other high-profile Hamas officials who had gone into hiding to make public statements and appear at rallies.

Yassin said Palestinians would continue their uprising, despite the deteriorating living conditions of many.

"We must prepare ourselves for a lengthy battle because this century is the century of Islam, the century of liberation, the century of victory and sovereignty, by Allah's will all those oppressive regimes will diminish and with our determination and sacrifices we will be the coming power," he said.