A Saudi leaflet calling for the boycotting of American products.

CAIRO — Many in several Muslim countries are championing a boycott campaign against American products over Washington's perceived flagrant bias towards Israel in its war on Lebanon, encouraged by a successful similar measure against Denmark.

Saudi volunteers are printing thousands of leaflets and sending SMSs encouraging people to boycott American products.

"For the sake of Palestine and Lebanon…Boycott American products," reads one leaflet. "Our boycott bombs are the answer to their smart bombs," says one SMS.

"We want to distribute one million leaflets in the city of Riyadh alone," volunteer Mahmmad Mahmmoud told IslamOnline.net.

He urged the people who get the leaflets to reprint them in abundance and distribute them among relatives and friends.

The boycott campaign was launched on Friday, August 4, following Friday prayer across the kingdom.

Israel has killed up to 1,000 people, mostly civilians, in Lebanon since July 12, drawing fire from human rights agencies for indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets.

The Bush administration, which has rushed to send laser-guided bombs to Israel, has been blocking international efforts to press for an immediate ceasefire.

A Franco-US draft resolution to end the raging war drew fire from the Lebanese government for failing to call for an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from southern Lebanon.

France has made several concessions in its original wording to win American support for the new draft.

Blogs

Saudis are encouraging one another to join the boycott campaign, with chat rooms and blogs becoming the platform for fervent boycott calls.

"If we can't go and fight alongside our brothers in Lebanon and Palestine, let's support them with money and deal a blow to the economies of their enemies," wrote one enthusiastic blogger.

He cited the painful economic losses incurred by Denmark thanks to a wide-scale Muslim boycott of its products after a Danish newspaper published cartoons that lampooned Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him).

Om Rakan, another blogger, urged Muslims and Arabs to keep up the economic heat.

"Our problem is that we have an energetic start that fades away with the passage of time," she lamented.

Saudi intellectuals have voiced their support for Hizbullah and its chief Hassan Nasrallah, counting an old fatwa by a Saudi scholar banning Saudi Sunnis from helping Lebanon's Shiite resistance movement.

Sharpest Weapon

The Prosperity and Justice Party (PPJ) of Indonesia has also urged a boycott of US and Israeli products to demonstrate against military aggressions on Palestine and Lebanon.

The PPJ condemned the brutality of Israeli attacks against civilians and demanded that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry stop trading with Israel.

Pundits believe that the economic boycott is the sharpest weapon at the hands of ordinary Muslims and Arabs, feeling betrayed by their regimes.

"It has proved successful before when it was applied against American restaurants and Danish products," Egyptian professor Foad Taha Abdel Halim said at a seminar organized by Al-Azhar University Saturday.

Taha hit out at Arab leaders for their sepulchral silence while the Lebanese and Palestinians are being massacred.

"Arab leaders are now cowering and don't allow their peoples to do anything," he said.

"It is shameful that Arab countries have not even severed their (direct or indirect) diplomatic ties with Israel over its offensive on Lebanon."

Taha said Arab leaders must be ashamed that Venezuela has been moved by the heartbreaking images of civilians massacred by Israel and decided to withdraw its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

Egypt, Jordan and Mauritania – the only Arab countries having full diplomatic ties with Israel – have rejected calls to expel the Israeli envoys.

Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia have rather blamed Hizbullah for triggering the conflict.

Pundits believe that some Arab rulers hoped that Hizbullah would be defeated by Israel, fearing that a victory by the resistance group would serve as a catalyst for reformists to push forward with their demands.