Sheikh Said: 'It doesn't make any sense to us'

Sheikh Said Hassan Ismail, one of the imams at the Butetown mosque, was firm in his condemnation of the action in the Gulf.

He told BBC News Online: "We are sad that it's happened at all, because who is going to suffer - ordinary men, women and children.

"It's not a war anyway, it's an invasion. It's two superpowers attacking a third world country.

"I'm not supporting Saddam here, he's a different matter altogether.

"What he has done he has done, and the things he has done he shouldn't have, and he has to pay for them personally, either on this earth or in the next world."

Motivation

Sheikh Said said Iraq had once enjoyed a standard of living similar to a European country.

"They're going to smash up a beautiful country.

"They've already put it back 100 years from the last war and they'll put it back into the old ages by the time this war is over," he said.

The prayers of the mosque are focusing on providing relief for the Iraqi people and making the action "not too hard on them".

He added: "But it's going to be hard."

Sheikh Said also questioned the motivation for the attacks in Iraq.

"It's about oil. We believe it's got nothing to do with terrorism.

We feel for our people and we are sorry for them, and angry that the so-called educated and democratic West is doing this Sheikh Said

"It's got nothing to do with Saddam and what they call the destructive weapons.

"They want to take control of the oil of the Middle East," he said.

And people have expressed the view that the action is a crusade against Islam.

"It was done in the olden days in one way, and they've gone back to the old way now.

"They've come thousands of miles from their country over the seas to attack a Muslim country, to attack an Arabic country," said Sheikh Said.

"Ok, they have to protect themselves, but they could have done it in another way.

"Mr Blix and the other chap who had the responsibility for finding out [about the weapons], they didn't give them enough time.

"They said they'd waited for 12 years and they hadn't found anything - what's wrong with giving them another month?"

"They said he's been building up his arms during these 12 years - if you knew that, why didn't you stop him?

"It doesn't make sense to us at all."

''Democratic''

Sheikh Said, born in South Shields, northern England, to an English mother and Yemeni father, moved to Cardiff at the age of nine after his father was killed in World War II.

He said many Muslims of Arabic origin, although British, have a fellow-feeling for Arabic peoples in other countries.

"There's anger and sorrow - anger that they're doing this to a Muslim and Arabic country.

"We are Arabs and we feel for our people.

"Although we were born in this country and we are British, we feel for our people and we are sorry for them, and angry that the so-called educated and democratic West is doing this."