Muslims should support the war against Iraq because more Muslims would die under the regime of its present leader Saddam Hussein, said Dr Malik M Hasan, president of the Council of American Muslims For Understanding (CAMU).

He said Saddam has to be stopped now in order to end all the miseries and sufferings the Iraqis have been enduring since he led the country in 1979.

"The man has killed more Muslims than any other people in the history of Islam. He is responsible for the death of more than 1.7 million people and will be killing more if he is not stopped", Malik told malaysiakini o­n Tuesday.

He is also saddened that instead of condemning Saddam, many Muslims prefer to attack the United States and its administration for trying to save the people of Iraq.

"The war with Iraq will kill the most, (and I don't say this easily) 10,000 people. But if Saddam and his son whom he has groomed to be his successor were allowed to continue ruling Iraq, they could possibly kill 10 or 20 times more Muslims over the next five years.

"Yes I do not want 10,000 Iraqis to die but given a choice of ten (thousand) now to a hundred (thousand) that we would save in the future, the war is a better choice" he reasoned.

Not a real Muslim

Malik said many Muslims failed to realize that Saddam has done nothing positive to the Iraqis and the Muslim world in general.

"What the man has done is atrocious! A man who is not even a real Muslim. I know this is a serious allegation but I say it with confidence. Saddam is a member of a pro-communist party whose manifesto excludes the belief of religion.

"He has done nothing except to hurt Muslims and their struggles...in fact he had condemned the Mujahiddins in Afghanistan when the Russians breached into their territory", he said.

As to the US policy o­n the o­ngoing Israel-Palestine conflict, Malik claimed that it is not based o­n an anti-Islam policy, adding that the Americans would have adopted the present policy, even if Israelis were Buddhists.

He said the pro-Israel policy was due to the country's historical link with the US that goes back to the Cold War between the US and Russia where Israel was o­ne the US' two friends in the Middle East.

"It is in the context of the Cold War that o­ne must look at where the (pro-Israel) policy is coming from. It has nothing to do with anti-Muslim or pro-Jew. While all other Arab countries were stupid enough to be o­n the wrong side, o­nly Israel and Jordan became American allies", he explained.

While the US is not perfect, he added, it is loyal to their allies and would go to great length to protect their friends.

What Muslims had forgotten

O­n the o­ngoing rallies against the US in Pakistan, Malik said the Pakistanis seemed to have forgotten that it was the Americans who helped stopped India from encroaching into their territory back in 1973.

As a result of the Sept 11 tragedy (which led US to attack Afghanistan's Taliban government) and the Palestine-Israel issue, the Pakistanis are now completely at war with the Jews and the Americans when it were these people who helped them during their crisis, he said.

Malik said Muslims also seemed to forget that it was the US and the American Jews who helped overcome the holocaust in Bosnia when all the Muslim leaders could do was make fiery speeches or look away.

It was the Americans who stopped the Serbians from continuing their war crimes against Bosnian Muslims while the other European countries refused to interfere and continued to debate about the issue, he said.

He is also saddened that Muslim leaders had ignored the killings of Muslims in Chechnya; a Holocaust Museum run by American Jews is now monitoring the war crimes there.

Changing mindset

He believed that the Palestine-Israel conflict would be solved in the next three years as US President George W Bush had given the American Muslim community his word that he would make every effort to bring peace to the Arab world.

He is also confident that government policies (on the Israel-Palestine conflict) will change o­nce the American public change their mindset about Jews being the underdog.

"Americans don't like bullies. In the beginning, the Jews were the underdog and that is why there is strong support for Israel. Now we are trying to educate the people that the Jews in Israel are no longer victims

but have now become the oppressors. o­nce we change this public opinion, we will see the government policy changing too," Malik said.

While conceding that Muslims cannot be blamed for hating Israel and its leader Ariel Sharon for oppressing the people of Palestine, he believed that the Muslims should not consider all Jews as their enemies.

"Sharon is a monster but I refuse to characterize all Jews o­n the same level as Sharon. There are honourable o­nes who had helped us in time of need and we should not make them our enemy," he said.

Hate-crimes against Muslims

Malik admitted that his view o­n the war does not represent the majority of the American Muslim community who generally oppose military force in Iraq.

Asked if the American Muslims view that a war in Iraq is also a war against Islam, Hassan said such a notion has not cropped up yet in the US.

"I don't think there is anyone in America who thinks that the war is against the religion of Islam. They are primarily concerned for the safety of the people of Iraq or whether they would have enough food, medicines and other aids," he said.

Malik admitted that hate-crimes against Muslims in America had increased several folds since Sept 11 but "the situation is manageable as the government has taken steps to curb such crimes".

"Although such crimes have increased, the figure is comparatively small compared to the number of hate crimes against the Jews. Hate-crime offenders in America are also given priority in police investigation and anyone found guilty for any race-related offences will face harsh sentences", he said.

Profiling procedure

As to the profiling procedure of Muslims of Arab descent living in the US, Malik believed that the profiling would not affect US citizens.

"You have to refer to the American ambassador for details o­n the question. I am not sure but they cannot impose the profiling to citizens. If someo­ne comes to me and say that you are a Pakistani and we need to profile you, I will tell him to go to hell. I am an American just like you".

"The point is if a former Iraqi is a citizen, then he is an American. He can't be an Iraqi at the same time. Therefore it is not right if he is profiled, he said.

Malik added that if there is any profiling that has to be done, it should be based o­n behaviour without racial or religious bearings, referring to the inspections by US immigration officials at airports.