IRNA reported today that: Interim Friday Prayer Leader of Tehran Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani said here in his second sermon, "Al-Qaeda is the illegitimate child of the United States and Israel." Addressing thousands of worshipers at central campus of Tehran University, Kashani made the remark in response to British Prime Minister Tony Blair's criticism of Islam in his reaction to fatal Thursday bomb blasts in London. He added, "Tony Blair has in his yesterday remarks asked, 'Is this Islam? What kind of Islam do they (Al-Qaeda) believe in? This is a fake version of Islam.'" Ayatollah Kashani reiterated, "Has the British prime minister forgotten who Al-Qaeda's parents are? I remind him then that the United States is Al-Qaeda's father and Israel is the mother of that illegitimate child (Al-Qaeda).

It is not clear if by his accusation, Emami-Kashani was referring the US arming of the Islamic Mujahidin groups in Afghanistan during their fight against the Soviet occupation, or merely that the oppression against the Palestinians by Israel, where the US is the main supporter, are to blame for creating such organizations. The New York Times reported yesterday that "An Israeli security guard shot dead a Palestinian teenager Friday during a protest against Israel's West Bank separation barrier, police said. Demonstrators marked the first anniversary of a ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, that the barrier, a network of ditches, barbed wire and concrete blocks, violates international law and must be taken down." The New York Times report added that "Palestinian hospital staff named the dead boy as Mahyoub Assi, 16, and said he was from the same clan as two 17-year-olds shot dead in May while stoning soldiers at the same spot, near the West Bank village of Beit Laqia."

Meantime, the IRNA report added: This week's Friday prayer preacher further stressed, "It was you yourselves that created this group in the name of Islam and therefore the conduct of a child whose father is the global arrogance, or the White House, and its mothers are the Israeli butchers should not surprise anyone." Emami-Kashani said, "You gave birth to this group to make a beast out of it for us, but thanks Allah, it is now taking good care of ourselves."
He added, "You also armed the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussain to teeth with all kinds of armaments to create problems for Iran, but it is again you yourselves that are caught in Iraq's quagmires."

The IRNA report added: Emami Kashani reiterated, "Such events must have given you a good lesson, convincing you not to seek hatching a third plot." Condemning London's Thursday deadly blasts he said, "Islam is the Religion of kindness, justice and humanity and it totally disapproves of massacring innocent women, children, youngsters and elderly folks." Interim Friday Prayer leader of Tehran also referred to the US President George W. Bush's remarks, where he has said, "The United States would continue its campaign against terrorism more resolutely than ever before". Kashani added, "The United States has already taken most serious efforts against terrorism, but let us see what the results of such efforts have been so far." He said, "Are not the (Thursday) London bomb blasts one of the results of that US-led campaign?"

The IRNA report added: Emami Kashani added, "The United States nurtures state-sponsored terrorism for sure, but if that country meanwhile wishes success in its campaign against terrorism it should first abandon its terrorist moves in occupied Palestine."

He also referred to the 1981 Islamic Republic Party bomb blast in Iran in which Dr. Mohammad-Hossein Beheshti and his comrades were martyred, arguing, "The United States has been involved in many terrorist moves in Iran, from the one in which Ayatollah Beheshti was martyred to recent fatal bomb blasts in Ahvaz."