Blame Islam? Muslims are the biggest victims of Orlando-style barbarity

To the editor: Words are inadequate to express my sadness and our sincerest sympathies to the families who lost their loved ones in Orlando Sunday morning. The heart-rending scenes of human anguish will be indelibly ingrained in our collective consciousness. This tragedy demonstrates the depth of human evil but at the same time evokes the depth of our human solidarity and bonding.

I am sick of trying to defend Islamic teachings every time a deranged guy commits such barbarity. We Muslims are the main victims of medieval barbarity. Just last week, a terrorist killed five employees of the general intelligence department in Jordan.

Those who believe they can incite religious animosity are mistaken in their beliefs. There are always those who will never cease to sow the seeds of religious peace and social harmony in times of adversity.

Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London

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To the editor: The national conversation that needs to happen in the wake of Orlando is about Islam. Europe is sending us dire warnings and we are not listening.

I, for one, am sick and tired of waking up to Islamic terrorism and being told – not least by my president – that the only acceptable response is to make distinctions between “true Islam” and “radical Islam.” Acts such as the attack in Orlando are a logical outgrowth of a belief system in which women are chattels and homosexuality is a vile fornication punishable by death.

While obviously only a small percentage of Muslims carry out terrorist acts, opinion polls of Muslims worldwide show support for or indifference toward terrorism in percentages disproportionate to any other group (and to civilized society). That the left defends this religion that calls for the enslavement of women and the execution of gays is a supreme betrayal of its core constituencies and purported values.

Jordan Chodorow, Los Angeles

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To the editor: You don’t make the world safer by giving every country on the face of the Earth nuclear weapons. You don’t make the world safer by giving every person guns.

There are an estimated 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, and if you think that all, most or even more than a small fraction of them are violent, hate-mongering mass murderers, then you can explain to me why the rest of humanity is still alive. Islam was created in the 7th century. Every feeling and motivation that killed those people in Orlando existed long before that and would still be here if the prophet Muhammad had never lived.

Islam did not do this, and mutually assured destruction will not solve it. Extremists are fine with assuring their own destruction anyway.

Connor Yarbrough, Buena Park

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