Hussein’s Invasion Offends Islamic Precepts, Egypt’s Muslims Preach : Religion: Leaders in the mosques are working to bolster public support for President Mubarak’s policy of confronting Iraq.

As hundreds of barefoot men knelt on their woven prayer mats, the sheik at Al Hussein mosque cast doubt on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s faith in Islam.

“Is it considered a part of Islam that one pious believer attacks another? Is a true believer one who violates the home of another and violates his rights?” he asked rhetorically.

At Al Azhar, Egypt’s most prominent mosque, the sheik warned worshipers that President Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait “has made us beg non-Muslims to protect our land, and this doesn’t make any Muslim happy.”

And the sheik of the Sayyida Zeineb mosque on Friday, the Islamic holy day, called for “all Muslims to stand by the dishonored Kuwaitis.”

Egypt’s Islamic leaders, preaching from government-funded mosques, are working to bolster public support for President Hosni Mubarak’s policy of confronting Iraq over the invasion and declared annexation of Kuwait.

Islamic leaders in countries such as Jordan and Algeria have supported Iraq and condemned the deployment of American troops and other Western forces in the Persian Gulf region. Islam’s holiest shrines, Mecca and Medina, are in Saudi Arabia, where the U.S. military operation is based.

But the religious men of Egypt, many of whom are appointed by the government, have found justification for Mubarak’s decision to send troops against Hussein in allegories and verses from the Koran, the holy book that Muslims believe is the word of God to the Prophet Mohammed. They have defended the presence of non-Muslim troops.

The sermons by religious leaders are taken to heart in Egypt, which is 95% Muslim, and help to prevent social unrest against the government. The vast majority of Egypt’s Muslims are of the moderate Sunni sect rather than the more radical Shiite sect, which predominates in Iran.

Mufti Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt’s second-highest Islamic leader, referred last week to verses in the Koran and said, “Muslims and their leaders should first try to solve a dispute. If one party is tyrannical to the other and does not accept reconciliation, the Muslims and their leaders must decide to fight the tyrant without any hesitation.”

He added, “If Muslim leaders find that the help of Muslims is not enough . . . they may resort to non-Muslims.”

Fahmy Howeidy, a Muslim scholar and columnist in the pro-government newspaper Al Ahram, explained that the sheiks’ sermons and pronouncements are guided by the government, which funds about 70% of the country’s mosques.

Even some of the smaller, independent Muslim groups have supported Mubarak’s stand on Iraq--but they vehemently oppose the presence of U.S. troops in the region.

Some of the opposition Muslim newspapers have taken the position that foreigners are a greater evil that must be dealt with first. In Al Shaab, the Socialist Labor Party weekly, editor Adel Hussein wrote: “Beware of what is in store for the Arab nation because of the foreign forces’ interference.”

But these views, weighed against the position of mainstream mosques and pro-government media, do not seem to have taken hold among the public.

In Al Ahram, 50 leading Muslim scholars signed a letter identifying the invasion and the presence of U.S. troops as problems of equal gravity, but said that the invasion of Kuwait must be dealt with first. The scholars said that if Arabs are unable to confront Iraq alone, then the issue should be put into the hands of the United Nations and that “no Western or Eastern flag should preside.”

Since Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion, President Hussein has tried to appeal to poor Muslims by portraying himself as the leader of the downtrodden against the rich oil emirs of Kuwait.

Columnist Howeidy noted, however, that Hussein is a secular leader known to have repressed Islamic leaders and activities before the crisis. Hussein tried to change his anti-Islamic image about two months before the invasion by organizing a conference of Muslim scholars in Baghdad.

“When he was fighting Iran, he spoke to Arabs as the leader defending the Arab world against fundamentalism. Now, he speaks as the Muslim leader trying to help poor Muslims against rich people. He is playing this game. . . . People are aware of that. They do not trust him,” Howeidy said.

That was apparent among worshipers at the Al Hussein mosque. Schoolteacher Magdi Ragab, 28, said, “If Saddam keeps on this course, there will be a war.”

Ragab said he believes that the decision to escalate to a shooting war would be made by Arabs rather than by the United States--a view not universally shared by world leaders. But the crowd gathered around Ragab seemed to agree.

One of the questions that diplomats and scholars repeatedly ask here is what will happen to Egyptian public opinion if Americans begin to kill Arabs at war, even though they may be shooting unpopular Iraqis.

Howeidy said he believes the Egyptian public would have a much easier time accepting the idea of Americans killing Arabs than Arabs killing Arabs.

Outside the Al Hussein mosque, teacher Ragab said he could not imagine turning against Americans engaged in a shooting war with Iraq, but others disagreed.

“Of course we’ll hate them,” shouted one. “We are all Arabs. This problem cannot be solved by others. It has to be solved by Arabs.”

The mosque was overflowing on a blistering Friday afternoon. Men in traditional gabaliya gowns prayed in the street, and families listened to the sermon over scratchy loudspeakers from teahouses across the way.

“Saddam has already made his mistake,” taxi driver Amin Bakry, 28, said while sipping tea. “He shouldn’t have invaded another Arab Muslim country. . . . Just because Israel took Lebanon by force doesn’t mean Iraq should do the same to Kuwait.”

At Al Azhar mosque, Sheik Ismail Sadek Adawi echoed Mubarak’s appeal to Hussein to end the occupation and to “have mercy on helpless people, on those who are lost in the desert, on your brothers. You are responsible for them more than are the enemies of Islam, the non-Muslims.”

At Sayyida Zeineb mosque, Sheik Ibrahim Galhoum urged worshipers to stand up against those who have disgraced God. “Fight against those who are aggressive toward their religion. If there is a war to defend an occupied land, the believers must become an invincible army so they may support each other. Those who fight for personal glory are not among the believers,” he said.

“Mohammed said, ‘God will bring vengeance upon him who steals the land.’ Mohammed told you not to kill Muslims because this is the greatest sin. I call on all Muslims to stand by the dishonored Kuwaitis. Were the struggle between Iraq and an infidel country, we would hope Iraq would be victorious . . . but in this case, what can I ask of God? I cannot pray that the Iraqis are victorious over Muslims, so I pray that Saddam’s senses come back to him.”