Imran says he is not anti-West

Imran Khan, the cricket star turned politician who is gaining support in Pakistan, on Friday rebutted charges he is anti-West and said his vision for an Islamic society looked like Scandinavia.Imran, who has drawn hundreds of thousands of followers in recent months after years in the political wilderness, reiterated his staunch criticism of the US campaign against Islamic extremists as he addressed a forum in Washington.But he rejected perceptions that his views are anti-Western. Khan, an Oxford graduate who was formerly married to writer Jemima Khan, said he was one of the few Pakistani politicians to have spent substantial time in the West.To be anti-Western makes absolutely no sense at all. The West is geography. How can you be anti-geography? Imran told the Atlantic Council, a think-tank, via Internet video provider Skype.And to be anti-American... how can you be anti-a whole country, where there are so many different views? he said.I have always been anti-the American war on terror. I have always thought that this was an insane war, Khan said.A decade after Pakistan reluctantly supported the US-led campaign against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, Khan said that his country was far more radicalized and that billions of dollars had been wasted.I have never understood what they were trying to achieve. I still dont know what is victory in the war on terror, Khan said.But Khan -- whom former military ruler Pervez Musharraf once called a Taliban without the beard -- said that he had to demystify to Western audiences his idea of an Islamic society.If you ask me today what is closest to that ideal, I would say the Scandinavian countries, Khan said, praising them for their humane society, where there is rule of law, a society that looks after its weak, its handicapped.Such a society is the opposite of Pakistan where literally the poor people are subsidizing the rich, while all the jails are full of poor people.Khan has drawn more than 100,000 people to rallies in Pakistan in which he has promised a good tsunami against injustice and corruption.Khans popularity comes as Pakistan wades through a slew of problems including attacks, power and gas shortages, a feeble economy, flood damage, friction between civilian and military leaders and tensions with Washington.