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Saving Islam From Terrorists

(Christian Science Monitor) Editorial - The pace is quickening for a post-9/11 movement among Muslims to salvage Islam's reputation. Saudi columnist Khaled Hamed al-Suleiman wrote in the government daily Okaz, "They turned today's Islam into something having to do with decapitations, the slashing of throats, abducting innocent civilians and exploding people....They have fixed the image of Muslims in the eyes of the world as barbarians and savages who are not good for anything except slaughtering people. The time has come for Muslims to be the first to come out against those interested in abducting Islam in the same way they abducted innocent children." The U.S. and its allies could have no better partners than moderate Muslims asserting their claim to Islam's peaceful ways. The greatest fear of al-Qaeda is to be ostracized by the world's 1 billion Muslims. This theological contest is centered on Saudi Arabia, whose monarchy long has supported a type of fundamentalist Islam that preaches intolerance. Official attempts to tone down the teaching of violence are going slowly, with the royal regime fearing for its own survival.
2004-09-10 00:00:00
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