Indonesian protesters march during an anti-war demonstration in Solo

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent

Kuala Lumpur, April 7 (IslamOnline.net) - The dire absence of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and the lack of evidence that the Iraqi regime of President Saddam Hussein is linked to terror organizations, two pretexts the U.S. used to attack iraq, have irked and angered Muslims in South East Asia who protested against the U.S. invasion of Iraq in different ways over the weekend.

In Malaysia , the Minister of Defense Najib Tun Razak said on Sunday, April 6, that the U.S. has not clarified why it attacked Iraq in the first place. He added that there was no proof of Iraq stacking and ready to use WMD’s against U.S. troops.

He added that the U.S. also failed to prove that the Iraqi government was linked to the Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden, the number one terror suspect on the anti-terror list of the United States .

The United States has not stated its real reason for invading Iraq because all the reasons it gave have not been substantiated, the minister said.

He said that at first the U.S. wanted to attack Iraq because Iraq was said to have weapons of mass destruction but when none was found, it gave the reason that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was conspiring with Arab millionaire Osama Bin Laden who is wanted by the Americans.

When there was no proof to link Saddam with Bin Laden, the U.S. gave the reason that it wanted to liberate the Iraqis from a the tyrant Saddam, he added as reported by Bernama.

"Where Malaysia is concerned, the developments in Iraq so far clearly show that there are no weapons of mass destruction to support the invasion of Iraq ," he said.

Najib said Malaysia was prepared to cooperate with other nations if they really wanted to tackle terrorism but in the case of Iraq , the invasion by the U.S. and its allies had caused the deaths of many civilians.

The problem in Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism and the civilians, who were the war victims, had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001 , he said.

In Indonesia , thousands paraded the streets of several cities in the largest Muslim country, shouting their desperation and anger against the U.S. for its continued bombing and killing of civilians in Iraq .

While in Jakarta the anger against the U.S. has taken a different turn around with the enforcing of the boycott of U.S. products by a large section of the Muslim population, there were little signs of imminent danger against foreigners in the country.

No sweeping or attacks against foreigners were reported whereas most of the Muslims seem to have adhered to the calls for peaceful demonstration and not to be involved in violent acts due to the Iraq war. However the absence of the much advertised finding of WMD’s in Iraq has raised the level of anger of the Muslims in Indonesia .

“There are no reasons besides being a bully for the U.S. attack on Iraq . The much touted WMD as a cause for the attack on Iraq has fizzled and the U.S. should actually leave Iraq ,” said a student in Jakarta .

Another student, Fadzur, said the U.S. has failed to gain the trust of the Indonesians particularly when it failed to link Iraq to the terrorist network. He added that Saddam Hussein proved, so far to the entire world, that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction.

“Though that does not make Saddam a great hero, it shows his statesmanship and we have to trust his words,” Fadzur added.

A teacher at the same institution located just outside the southern suburbs of Jakarta said the world will soon watch the “murder of Saddam Hussein and his family and entourage, and we Muslims cannot do anything about that”.

Malaysian Muslims in general were disappointed too with the kind of reporting they saw on television which showed that even in an age of information technology, the warring factions, particularly the U.S. and the British forces could not hide their “lies and propaganda” in the Iraq war.

“The U.S. promised it will find WMD in stacks and quantity that would be enough to put the blame of Saddam Hussein, they struggled to find such weapons and every time they find some powder and suspicious weapons, they say it’s WMD. When it is not WMD, they turn around and hide these lies with more lies,” Abdul Syukur said.

The U.S. launched the Iraq war with the idea that it would find such weapons of mass destruction and would win the propaganda battle against Iraq . Its failure to prove Iraq was a threat to the world has made its war a dirty one, and will revive the debate that it’s a new crusade against Islam, said some Malaysian students interviewed at a local University during the weekend.

Overall, the Muslims in this region are asking the U.S. and Britain to come forward and explain why they attacked Iraq , a country which represented little danger to the Arab world and no danger at all to the U.S. and Britain . They also want the U.S. to explain why there were no WMD’s in Iraq , adding that the UN’s inspectors were doing a great job and were not lying when they said Iraq was WMD free.

“What is important is that the U.S. and Britain has lost the media and propaganda war about WMD’s and terror links in Iraq, they have also raised suspicion among Muslims world wide, with that they have also lost whatever little trust the Muslims would have had in them,” said a psychologist working in a private institution in Kuala Lumpur.

Samiyullah, who works in Damansara. said the absence of WMD in Iraq and the fact that the Iraqis are defending their country with basically conventional weapons proved the U.S. wrong.

“It will take the U.S. a long time and a lot of public relations as well as trust building to win the hearts of Muslims in this region,” he added.