MARAWI CITY, 10 October - About 5,000 Muslims burned American flags and a picture of President George W. Bush as they took to the streets of this southern city yesterday to protest the US-led attacks on Afghanistan.

Chanting "Death to America" and "Long live Osama Bin Laden," many of the able-bodied among the protesters said they were even willing to go to Afghanistan if recruited to fight with Bin Laden and the Taleban.

"We are trying to send a message to the US government that we cannot just take things sitting down while our brothers, thousands of innocent Muslims, are killed as a result of the military campaign in Afghanistan. We have to help," said protest leader Hadji Abdulah Dalidig.

Dalidig, founder and chair of the Marawi-based Islamic Movement for Electoral Reform and Good Government (Imergg), said they were also angry at the administration of President Macapagal-Arroyo for serving as an "instrument of war" against their brother Muslims in Afghanistan.

They said the United States and its allies should produce hard evidence that Bin Laden had indeed masterminded the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

"Thousands of our people condemning the attack (on Afghanistan) have declared 'jihad' against the US and its allies for putting the lives of innocent civilians in danger," said lawyer Macapanton Abbas Jr., adviser to the Imergg.

"There are Muslim extremists here who like to kidnap Americans to show their support to the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden," added Macapanton Abbas, chairman of the Bangsa Moro Multi-sectoral Council, a Muslim citizens' group.

A US State Department advisory warns American citizens not to travel to Mindanao.

In a manifesto distributed during the rally, the Muslim leaders urged President Arroyo not to allow the United States to use Philippine bases or send Filipino troops to fight the Taleban.

Arroyo strongly supports the US-led coalition and has offered Philippine ports as staging areas or transit points for coalition forces. She said if there is a call, Filipino troops would also be deployed to help the coalition.

Dalidig said more than 500,000 pesos ($97,000) has so far been amassed to finance the volunteers' trip to Afghanistan. "The Taleban and Osama Bin Laden are our brothers," Dalidig said. "We are obligated to help them in their darkest hour."

Aga Khan Al Sharef, 32, a volunteer waiting to go, said 20 others have already left the southern island of Jolo for Malaysia on route to Hong Kong and China, where he said Chinese Muslims would help them slip into Afghanistan.

Dozens of Filipino Muslims, including guerrillas from the secessionist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILS) and the dreaded Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang, joined the international Islamic forces that fought Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Dalidig, however, pointed out that those who said they were willing to be sent to Afghanistan as warriors were not affiliated with any rebel group.

"These people are not rebels in our country. But since the lives of Muslim civilians in Afghanistan are in danger, it will be noble on our part to help the Afghans," he said.

The military chief of the MILF also said the separatist group was not too concerned with the attacks on Afghanistan as it was preoccupied with domestic problems including the age-old conflict in Mindanao.

Al-Haj Murad Ebrahim made the clarification to the Inquirer by phone from Kuala Lumpur amid fears that the MILF, along with its counterparts in Asia, would send volunteers to Afghanistan to fight side by side with Taleban forces.

The MILF is one of several Islamic rebel organizations in Asia said to have ties with the Taleban.

But Murad said no MILF guerrilla would be sent to Afghanistan this time.

"It is possible that some Muslims would volunteer to join the Taleban against the United States and its allies, but as far as the MILF is concerned, we are focusing our attention today on our own problems," Murad said.

MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu yesterday denied having issued any statement condemning the US in Afghanistan. He clarified that the MILF has maintained a "no comment" on the issue as well as the Taleban call for jihad against America.