US Congressman, Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.), has created huge anger in the Muslim world after introducing his idea to nuke the holy city of Mecca.

The lawmaker, on a radio talk show Friday, was asked how the USA might respond if Muslims used nuclear weapons on American cities. "Well," Tancredo said, "what if you said something like -- if this happens in the United States and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites."

Tancredo has refused to apologize, saying his comments had been taken out of context by the media and others. Instead, he issued a statement in which he said he was simply trying to figure out what the United States could use as a threat to deter future attacks.

"Among the many things we might do to prevent such an attack on America would be to lay out there as a possibility the destruction of these sites," he wrote.

"I do not advocate this. Much more thought would need to be given to the potential ramifications of such a horrific response," Tancredo wrote.

Arabs in the US were quick to attack Tancredo’s comments. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said "It is irresponsible for a member of the United States Congress to advocate destroying the holy site of the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims with a nuclear weapon." "We must also be keenly aware of the damaging and irrational rhetoric against Arabs and Islam expressed by members of Congress, the Administration, and the media," it said in a statement.

CAIR, America's largest Muslim civil liberties group, has said it is working with leaders of the Colorado Muslim community to set up a meeting with Tancredo over his recent remarks.

© 2005 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)