(Al-Sharq Al-Awsat/Telegraph-UK) Abdulrahman al-Rashed - It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims. The majority of those who manned the suicide bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses, and buildings all over the world were Muslim. What an abominable "achievement." Let us acknowledge this reality instead of denying it. The mosque used to be a haven, and the voice of religion used to be that of peace and reconciliation. Then came the Neo-Muslims. An innocent and benevolent religion, whose verses prohibit the felling of trees in the absence of urgent necessity, that says explicitly that if you kill one person you have killed humanity as a whole, has been turned into a global message of hate and a universal war cry. We cannot tolerate in our midst those who abduct journalists, murder civilians, explode buses; we cannot accept them as related to us, whatever the sufferings they claim to justify their criminal deeds. These are the people who have smeared Islam and stained its image. We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise; an almost exclusive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women. The writer is general manager of the Al-Arabiya news channel. This article appeared Saturday in the pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat under the headline, "The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists are Muslims!"
2004-09-06 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive