CARRY ON, CONSPIRACY

A Pakistani fundamentalist tells

Robert Hardman that the attack on the

World Trade Center was a Jewish plot

Islamabad TO look at the television images, it might appear that Pakistan is close to meltdown, that the streets are filled with blood and tear gas, while the President, General Pervez Musharraf, prepares for civil war. The situation is certainly not that bad, of course; but there are several fundamentalist religious leaders who are doing their best to make us think that it is. And they are starting to rattle the General.

This week's blazing bazaars in Quetta, running street battles in Peshawar, and effigies of burning Bushes up and down the land have all been incited by a small collection of mullahs who are thoroughly enjoying their sudden prominence. In a land controlled by a military oligarchy for two years, they are now the only civilian politicians regularly appearing on the front pages.

Do not scan the Pakistani headlines for the views of ex-prime ministers or the articulate anguish of Imran Khan. Their relatively moderate voices attract little attention compared with the battle-cries of men like Fazlur Rehman, Samiul I-laq or Azam Tariq — fringe figures who have become the strident new voice of opposition to the General and the West.

These are the jihadmongers. They may represent a small fraction of Pakistani society — in British electoral terms they are somewhere between the Greens and Plaid Cymru — but Iran's ayatollahs remain a sobering reminder of what a small, wellorganised fundamentalist clique can do.

This week the General has finally had enough and plonked the ringleaders under house arrest. But where are the Western liberal voices crying out for the human rights of these dissidents? There will be no Hampstead soirees, no Harold Pinter outbursts or Amnesty International gigs in honour of these plucky champions of democracy victimised by a khaki regime. Even Gerry Adams would wince at sharing a platform with this lot. Having spent a couple of days with one of them just before his detention, I can see why.

'Why is no one investigating the Jews?' Mr Rehman demands, as we start to discuss the New York atrocities. 'They pro duced a list of names of Muslims on those planes and yet they turn out to be alive. Why is there no list of all the Jews on the plane? And why did 4,000 Jews not turn up for work on the day of the attacks? And why did Sharon cancel his visit to New York that day? And how come all the camera crews who filmed the crashes were Jewish? The Jews did those attacks.'

We are sitting on the floor of a madrasah (a religious school) in Quetta, a dusty desert city on Pakistan's Afghan border, which is just a few hours' drive from Kandahar, the Taleban's spiritual capital. So where, I ask, is Mr Rehman's evidence for his extraordinary Jewish conspiracy theory? 'We have our own sources,' he says grandly.

Anyone making similar claims in the West would be dismissed as a racist nutter. However, Mr Rehman leads his own wing of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) party, the nearest thing to a Taleban fan club in this part of the world. He has between two and three million supporters, and his own private police force. He has been preaching his conspiracy theories across Pakistan for the best part of a month, and millions believe him.

The 'Emir', as he styles himself, is charismatic, extremely overweight, wears a hefty Rolex watch and looks much older than his 48 years, with a long grey beard below his orange putkha headdress. Known by opponents as 'Mr Diesel' — a reference to his lucrative, cross-border petrol dealings — he is also rather jolly in a Carry On Up the Khyber sort of way. 'Now, the Americans are demanding the handover of Osama bin Laden. Soon, like every foreign army before them, they will be demanding the return of their own soldiers,' he announces with a chuckle, and there is an outbreak of loyal guffaws from his henchmen.

Mr Rehman has agreed to see me because he wants me to tell the West that the Afghans — his 'brothers' — are a peace-loving people. He makes the ritual condemnation of the World Trade Center attacks, but insists that they can have nothing to do with bin Laden, 'I have met him in Sudan. He is a nice man, a quiet man. He is not organising terrorism in Afghanistan. He is just there, eating.'

It's the 'show us the proof' routine which is now the majority view in Pakistan, from educated liberals to hardline clerics. I point out that most of the world's nations, including many Muslim ones, believe there is a case to answer. 'That is because America puts pressure on these rulers.'

He clambers to his feet and departs in a convoy of jeeps full of JUI militiamen. The mood suddenly changes. With the departure of the VIP, the crowd suddenly turns hostile and we beat a hasty retreat to the car, smiling manically and saying a cheery 'hello' to everyone in sight, as the crowd increases from nowhere. 'Remember that film The Birds?' I whisper to the photographer, as the car screeches off with people thumping on the roof and kicking the doors.

A couple of days later, up in Rawalpindi, I come across Mr Rehman again as he leads a crowd of 15,000 through the streets. Six-year-old Mohammed Khan sits on a cousin's shoulders wearing a Taleban headdress and waving a pistol. 'He wants to be a martyr,' says his proud cousin.

From the back of his military jeep, Mr Rehman waves at his followers like royalty and is heaved on to the back of a truck to repeat his conspiracy theories. 'We have defeated the British in the past, and if they come into Afghanistan again we will not only defeat them but take revenge for the imperial slavery of Pakistan!' A chorus of 'Death to the infidel' suggests that this has gone down very well.

Not long after this, Mr Rehman found himself under house arrest, but his lieutenants continue to preach the same mantra to an increasingly noisy and violent constituency. They remain a small minority, but they are not going away. And their numbers are growing with every cruise missile that lands on the other side of the border.

Robert Hardman is a columnist and correspondent for the Daily Mail.