TORONTO, Canada: Muslims across the globe labeled as “aggressive and irresponsible” a conservative American congressman's suggestion that the United States could "take out" Islamic holy sites if Muslim attackers targeted US in a nuclear strike, demanding an apology.

US Representative Tom Tancredo has stirred up controversy by advocating that Washington respond to a future terror attack by bombing Muslim holy sites.

Reprising remarks he made on a Florida radio station last week, Tancredo said on US television Tuesday: "If this (terror attack) happens, and if, in fact, we can prove that it was perpetrated by some fundamentalist Islamic -- "Islamo-fascist" is really I think what we should call them -- then you might think about this as a threat, the retaliation on their holy sites.”

"We are talking about a situation where our very lives are at stake, not just the life of the United States, but of Western civilization,” Tancredo told Fox television.

In last week's radio interview on Friday about Muslims and the war on terror, Tancredo said US bombs could "take out their holy sites."

When asked by host Pat Campbell of WFLA-AM in Orlando, Fla. if he was "talking about bombing Mecca," Tancredo reportedly replied, "Yeah."

Many Muslims said the comments leave Muslims feeling Americans equate terrorists with all of Islam.
Turkey's foreign minister Abdullah Gul on Tuesday condemned comments made last week by Tancredo.

Syrian political analyst Ahmed Al-Haj Ali said: "American mentality imagines that a religion is attacking another religion, and here lies the danger." He called it "frightening" to "retaliate against the birthplace of Islam for individual criminal acts or acts committed by groups that are condemned by Islam."

"America is trying to market the idea of striking at Mecca in order to fight fundamentalism. This is crazy talk devoid of logic," said Sheik Hisham Hassani, a Syrian expert on fundamentalist groups. He accused Washington of sowing "sectarian discord that always begins with such utterances."

A Kuwait University political science teacher Hamed Al-Abdullah said: "I find it strange that such a comment comes from someone who represents a civilized people.” The comment should be rejected by civic societies, the Congress and President Bush, he said.

Adam Ereli, spokesman for US State Department called the congressman's statement "insulting and offensive." He said Americans "respect the dignity and sanctity of other religions."

In Egypt, the liberal Al-Ghad Party condemned Tancredo's comments and demanded "an official apology to all Muslim nations, who love peace and reject arrogance and violence."

Tancredo has refused to apologize, telling The Associated Press his comments had been taken out of context. He said he never said he wanted to bomb Mecca or Medina and added that it would be better to think of ways to prevent a terrorist attack, noting that he didn't want to "inflame this issue."

Indonesia's Islamic clerics leader criticized the remarks as "irresponsible" and called on Americans to protest them ... Does he understand anything about human rights? At least when the United States attacks Iraq, Muslims blame the government not the American people.”

The Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the remarks this week, and called for a retraction and an apology.

But Tancredo stood by his comments, and even expanded on them.

He expanded on his thought in an in interview on MSNBC Tuesday.

Tancredo said he hoped at very least that his hardline stance might convince moderate Muslims to rein in extremist co-religionists.

The Arab American Institute also called for an apology. "This kind of speech from an elected official is harmful to the war on terror and does not represent the sentiments of the American people," James Zogby, the Washington-based institute's president, said in a statement. "Irresponsible language such as this only widens the gap between the US and Arab and Muslim world."