A resolution adopted by Islamic clerics asking Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan will be put to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar for a decision "as soon as possible," a minister of the Islamic militia told AFP.
Mullah Mohammad Muslim Haqqani, the deputy minister of higher education, said the clerics' decision "will now go to the Taliban leadership and they will decide as soon as possible."
He was speaking shortly after hundreds of clerics from across Afghanistan adopted a resolution asking bin Laden to leave Afghanistan of his own accord.
The clerics also passed a resolution that called for a jihad, or holy war, if the United States attacks Afghanistan, said Haqqani.
"They asked the Taliban to persuade bin Laden to leave Afghanistan at the proper time and of his own choice," the minister, a participant in the talks, said.
"They also said that if the US attacks Afghanistan it will be the obligation of every Muslim to carry out jihad."
The clerics, called ulema in Muslim countries, had been asked to issue a ruling on bin Laden by Omar, the Taliban's supreme spiritual authority.
The Taliban has previously refused all requests to extradite bin Laden, who has been indicted by a New York prosecutor in connection with the 1998 bombing of two US embassies in Africa.
Bin Laden is also suspected by the United States of involvement in last week's attacks on New York and Washington which left some 6,000 people dead -- KABUL (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
