Durmen Village, Uzbekistan

- Just three days before a major Islamic holiday, a lamb was born with white patterns on its black fleece resembling the Arabic letters for Allah on one side and Mohammed on the other.

The phenomenon has caused a sensation among ordinary people in this former Soviet state where most people are Muslims - and it has been an annoyance to authorities in the staunchly secular government.

Mainstream religious organizations are pursuing a campaign to characterize the lamb as nothing special. But thousands have traveled to this village in the eastern Fergana Valley to see what they believe is a lamb of God sent to strengthen Muslims' faith.

Religion is a sensitive matter in this Central Asian country, where the government has been cracking down on Islamic militants for several years. Officials worry that the lamb may boost the ranks of opposition sympathizers.

Adding a political angle, the lamb belongs to a family that had a young male relative beaten to death by security officers last November after he was detained for alleged links to a banned religious group.

The lamb is owned by Khudoyberdy Odylov, 36, whose first name means "given by God" and family name means "just." He says the lamb is maybe God's answer to his prayers for justice for his dead nephew, Alimohammad Mamadaliyev, and consolation for his family and other suffering people.

In early May, three security officers went on trial charged with murdering his nephew. The trial in the capital, Tashkent, is a rarity in a country where police abuse is common.

The lamb was born Feb. 19, just before Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, which marks the end of Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Odylov has been able to buy a car and repair the roof of his house thanks to donations from visitors. He says he tried to refuse the money at first, but that offended people. It is an Uzbek tradition to make donations at sacred places.

Official Islamic institutions are trying to convince people there is nothing holy about the lamb.

Clergy and other religious officials push that message at public meetings and through newspapers, radio and television, all of which are controlled by the state.

"It is a sin to worship this lamb. People have been misled," says Khamidjon Ishmatbekov, a spokesman for the Muslim Spiritual Board.

For Odylov, though, the lamb is a message from heaven sent to support him, his 77-year-old mother, wife and four children at a difficult time.