Cairo, Egypt — Iran scoffed Wednesday at George W. Bush's charges it was exporting extremism and hoarding weapons of mass destruction, but other Muslim nations were eager to line up with the U.S. president and his war on terror.
"We reject the U.S. accusations and we think that the world will not tolerate the hegemony of the U.S. The U.S. president should offer proof to support his allegations; repeating the usual accusations will not help him," Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Wednesday, according to state-run Tehran radio.
In his State of the Union address Tuesday, Bush said states like Iran, Iraq and North Korea were part of an "axis of evil." He said Iran was pursuing weapons of mass destruction and "exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom."
There was no immediate comment from Iraq or Kuwait.
Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, speaking in Tehran Wednesday at a meeting held in support of the Palestinians, said that while Bush "calls the people and holy resistance movements of Palestine and Lebanon terrorists, he himself is a supporter of terrorism."
He added it was "truly amazing" that Bush singled out as terrorist Hamas and Hezbollah, militant groups many Arabs see as champions of the Palestinian cause.
Across the Mideast and the Muslim world, Washington's perceived bias toward Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been cited as a the source of the Arab and Muslim anger that leads to violence against the United States.
Munawaar Hasan, a leader of Pakistan's main fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami, said Bush's agenda will further fuel anger among Muslims against what he called biased U.S. policies.
Instead of cracking down on Islamic resistance movements, the U.S. should "revise and re-evaluate" its foreign policies, he said.
In his speech, Bush praised Pakistan government for "cracking down on terror." Pakistan has outlawed Muslim militant groups, though Hasan's Jamaat-e-Islami was not banned.
In Malaysia Wednesday, Nasharudin Mat Isa, secretary-general of the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, Malaysia's largest opposition group, said Bush's speech sounded "like a threat against countries that are not on good terms with the U.S."
"I think the speech on terrorism merely underlines U.S. intention to colonize the world as much as possible," he said. Malaysia is a mostly Muslim country in Southeast Asia where 23 people have been arrested since Dec. 9 for alleged membership of an al-Qaida-linked militant group.
While some paint Bush's war on terror as a Western campaign against Muslims, Muslim leaders like Somali President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan turn to the United States for help.
"The Somali government very much welcomes the speech by President Bush last night about fighting international terrorism worldwide," Abdiqasim told The Associated Press Wednesday. Bush in his speech said "our Navy" was patrolling the African coast to block the shipment of weapons and the establishment of terrorist camps in Somalia.
Abdiqasim's transitional administration, formed two years ago, is Somalia's first central authority since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. However, the cash-strapped government has little influence outside the capital, Mogadishu.
"We would ask the American government to collaborate with us, the Transitional National Government, in fighting and eradicating all possible terrorism in Somalia in whichever corner of the country," Abdiqasim said.
In majority Muslim Bosnia, officials said they already were working closely with the United States.
"Bosnia definitively decided which direction it will go after we were shocked with what happened on Sept. 11," said Ivica Misic, a deputy Bosnian foreign minister and head of the country's anti-terrorist team.
"We have no doubt _ Bosnia is continuing its war against terrorism. We are glad and we are happy because of the good results that the U.S. and international community have made in the fight against terrorism," Misic said.
Bosnia earlier this month turned over to the United States six Algerians who had been arrested in Bosnia and who U.S. authorities said posed a significant and credible threat to American and other Western interests in Bosnia.
In the Philippines, a longtime U.S. ally, Bush's speech aired as the Congress debated the constitutionality of joint exercises with U.S. troops that open Thursday. For the first time, the annual maneuvers will allow Americans, armed for self-defense, to enter a combat zone to assess the needs of the Filipino military fighting the extremist Muslim group Abu Sayyaf.
The Abu Sayyaf in the southern Philippines region of Mindanao is believed to have gotten early funding and at least some training from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network. In recent years, it has evolved into a criminal gang focused less on Islam and more on kidnappings for ransom.
The group has been holding an American missionary couple and a Filipino nurse for the last eight months on the southern Philippine island of Basilan. The Philippine military has been unable to root out the estimated 800 or so fighters, so Washington has agreed to provide training and gear.
Several Philippine officials _ including two Cabinet ministers _ chafed at Bush's warning that "a terrorist underworld" exists in a dozen countries and if those countries don't act, "America will."
Philippines National Security Adviser Roilo Golez tried to smooth ruffled feathers by quoting U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld as saying Washington will work differently with friendly and unfriendly countries.
"The U.S. respects ... our record in fighting international terrorism," Golez said.
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