Muslims Collectively Must Denounce Terror

Re “Blast Kills 7 at University in Jerusalem,” Aug. 1: The prophet Muhammad said, “The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr.” The late Abdus Salam, a tireless humanitarian and the first Muslim to receive the Nobel Prize in physics, emphatically argued that the Islamic civilization’s path to renaissance lies in the Koran’s instruction to pursue knowledge and understanding, the holiest of activities.

It is not, then, without a sense of irony that the victims of the horrendous bombing of Hebrew University were true martyrs, according to Islam, whose sacred blood was spilled in their pursuit of knowledge.

It is time that Muslims throughout the world collectively unite and proclaim, in the loudest possible voice, that terrorism in any form is an ugly and un-Islamic practice. Failing to collectively denounce terrorism amounts to creating a superficial Muslim solidarity that includes the apologetics for terrorism. This then gives certain bigoted individuals the tools with which to misrepresent Islam. True Muslim solidarity must include a clear and concise denunciation of terrorism, whenever and wherever its ugly head appears.

The grievances of Muslims can never justify turning a blind eye to terrorism or being apologetic for terrorists.

Omar Ahmad

Los Angeles

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If King Abdullah II of Jordan wants to accelerate the timetable for Palestinian statehood, he’s talking to the wrong person (“Bush Says Push for Peace Will Continue,” Aug. 2). Instead of asking President Bush to pressure Israel, he himself should demand that Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Yasser Arafat’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Tanzim murderers stop the terror attacks directed against innocent Israeli civilians.

When Israeli mothers can send their children off to school on a bus or let their kids go to a disco or pizzeria without having to worry that their sons and daughters may be killed by a Palestinian suicide bomber, Israel will be more than willing to help the Palestinians build a state.

Stephen A. Silver

Concord, Calif.