Opinion: By refusing to scapegoat Muslims after the Manchester attack, Brits are setting an example of coexistence

To the editor: The killing of 22 people in Manchester after a pop concert has stirred the spirit of the British people. As a doctor, I know it is impossible to convey the effect of the death, raw pain, anxiety and fear experienced in the last few days. It is never an easy thing to endure suffering. (“Members of Manchester’s Muslim community among those most strongly condemning deadly bombing,” May 23)

The lunatic who murdered innocents was a Muslim criminal, but never a soldier of Islam.

Centuries before the Geneva Convention, Muslim soldiers were ordered not to kill an old person, a man, a woman, a child or a priest, and not to cut a tree or desecrate a church, synagogue or any place where God is worshiped. Nothing religious could motivate or justify the perpetration of such horrendous deeds.

It is never an easy option to resist calls for revenge against the Muslim community. However, amid the death and the grief, the British people seem to have chosen the path of coexistence and reconciliation instead of vengeance and animosity. This is a living example for the entire world.

Munjed Farid Al Qutob, London

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To the editor: True Brits do not kill their countrymen in this manner. True Frenchmen do not kill their countrymen in this manner. True Germans do not kill their countrymen in this manner.

Such killings occur by those who are not true countrymen but live in those countries.

It is time to “take the gloves off” and approach the problem realistically. It is extremely apparent that these people take advantage of these countries’ goodwill, as these nations accept them into their countries without reservation, unfortunately to their detriment.

John T. Kirages, Arcadia

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To the editor: Whenever a terrorist attack by Islamist jihadis occurs anywhere in the world, many people want “moderate Muslims” to speak out against such barbarism.

What must these “moderate Muslims” think when they see the president of the United States feted in Saudi Arabia — the country from which 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers came; the country that supports thousands of religious schools in Pakistan spewing hatred; the country that makes a mockery of human rights?

Do you think these “moderate Muslims” might just be thinking that we ask of them what we refuse to ask of our own leaders?

Michael Risman, Santa Monica

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