A day later in Baghdad, the imam at Umm al-Maarek, or Mother of All Battles mosque, Abdel-Razzaq al-Saadi told worshipers and those watching his sermon on Iraqi state television that it is "the obligation for Iraqis and others now to threaten U.S. interests everywhere and set them ablaze." An imam at the Khadamiya mosque in Baghdad, according to New York Newsday, implored his followers last Friday to "be beside Islam before everything. And this is our great day to become martyrs. We should stand with President Saddam Hussein, God keep him, in this great day. This is not President Saddam Hussein's war. This is a Muslim war."

On Wednesday, Abbas Khalaf -- the Iraqi ambassador to Moscow who rushed back from Baghdad due to the pending U.S. attack -- announced that "the jihad has already begun," telling Agence France-Presse that his embassy had received 7,000 requests from fellow Arabs and Muslims to travel to Iraq to come to its defense.

But these calls are from all over the Arab and Muslim worlds -- and often from voices once thought somewhat moderate. In his address to the United Nations in November 2001, President Bush cited Cairo's Al-Azhar University as an authority, saying that "the Sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the world's oldest Islamic institution of higher learning, declared that terrorism is a disease, and that Islam prohibits killing innocent civilians." But on March 10, Al-Azhar University's Islamic Research Academy issued a statement that "according to Islamic law, if the enemy steps on Muslims' land, jihad becomes a duty on every male and female Muslim ... because our Arab and Islamic community will be facing a new Crusade targeting our land, honor, faith and nation."

Since that statement, Al-Azhar has backed off that statement a bit. The Grand Sheik of Al-Azhar, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, issued a statement two days later saying that "the phrase of 'new Crusade,' which was mentioned in the statement, was interpreted by some as declaring war between Islam and Christianity. No doubt, this understanding was not correct."

Yet calls for jihad are being voiced in other Arab countries with which the U.S. is allied. Sheikh Hamza Mansour, the leader of Jordan's largest and best-organized political party, the Islamic Action Front, repeated that call. "Under U.S. occupation, no one will restrict their actions to peaceful means," Mansour said. "Everyone will call for resistance by all the means they can muster."

Al-Jazeera reported on Thursday that a spokesman for the extremist Indonesian Defense Front pledged that "if the U.S. attack against Iraq takes place, we must fight a jihad. Every Muslim must destroy all the U.S. interests in all parts of the world." Habib Rizieq, the chairman of another Indonesian Islamist party, the Front Pembela Islam, said to the Australian Associated Press that "when the attack happens the allies will face thousands of new Osama bin Ladens who will destroy U.S. interests around the world."

Last week in Kandahar, security was stepped up after political pamphlets called "Shabnamey" Pashtun -- meaning "night letters" -- were distributed calling for a jihad against American soldiers in Afghanistan. Locals told a reporter with Agence France-Presse that the night letters were tied to the Iraq situation.

Past enemies, of course, are doing what they can to stoke anti-U.S. fervor. Moammar Gadhafi, ruler of Libya, warned of terrorist attacks on America should the U.S. attack Iraq. Gadhafi told a French newspaper that "the day America launches a war, it should expect the worst." According to a translation provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute, Al-Jumhuriya, the official newspaper of the Libyan regime, referred to the French president as "Chirac Al-Ayoubi" -- a reference to legendary Muslim military leader Saladin, or Salah al-Din Al-Ayoubi, who defeated the Crusaders in the Battle of Hittin.

In February, Mullah Mohammad Omar, former leader of the defeated Taliban now in hiding, was said to have faxed a statement to media outlets from inside Pakistan saying that the Taliban "considered the possible U.S. attack on Iraq as a continuation of the crusades against Muslims and an onslaught on Islam," the Iran Press Service reported. "The order also urged Afghans to take part in a jihad against U.S.-led coalition forces based in the country."

But for the most extreme elements -- namely al-Qaida -- former Ambassador Murphy says, "this is a God-sent recruiting opportunity since their claim to fame is portray themselves as the first line of defense for Islam."

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