Tuesday, September 26 2006 12:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: "Terming the Islamic tag given to Pakistan's nuclear bomb as 'racist'," President Pervez Musharraf has said nuclear testing by his country evoked a stronger protest from the global community as compared to India's test just because it was the first Muslim country to go nuclear.

"No one else's bomb is called Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Capitalist and Communist, yet our bomb becomes 'Islamic' as if it make it illegitimate. The idea is illogical and essentially racist. This is an example of how Muslims continually feel unjustly singled out and alienated," he says in his just released book 'In the Line of Fire'.

He said there was strong condemnation of Pakistan nuclear tests in 1998 than that of India. "The much stronger condemnation by the world in 1998 was surely because Pakistan was the first Muslim state to go nuclear. This is perceived in Pakistan as very unfair.

"Surely any state whose chief rival has the bomb would want to do what we did. After all we knew we could not (not) count on American protection alone," he said.

Musharraf sought to defend Pakistan's acquisition of nuclear weapons as part of its policy of deterrence with India. "Once India went nuclear, our deterrent became untenable. We had to rectify this situation, come what may. Remember that this was only three years after the war of 1971, when India severed east Pakistan from us," he said.