MODERATE MUSLIM SIGHTING: While the LA Times, New York Times, and Washington Post are eagerly serving as mouthpieces for terrorists defending the murder of civilians, The Baltimore Sun takes the novel approach of giving an op-ed opportunity to a Moderate Muslim to actually condemn terrorism.

Javeed Akhter, is a physician and a founding member of the International Strategy and Policy Institute, a Chicago-based Muslim-American think tank. He writes:

Suicide bombing has gained a cult status among some groups. The Tamil Tigers, a Hindu faction fighting the Buddhist majority of Sri Lanka, have a hero status among some Tamils. This is similar to the status of suicide bombers among some Muslims in Palestine and now in Iraq. Those who practice or sanction suicide bombing consider it a form of martyrdom. But suicide by any name is still suicide and is explicitly prohibited in Islam. Injunctions of the Quran and traditions of the Prophet Muhammad prohibit it in unequivocal terms. Similarly, killing of innocents is expressly prohibited. It is not collateral damage but callous murder.

...We in the United States need to redouble our efforts to immunize our young against mutant ideologies that romanticize suicide bombing and to encourage political engagement and civil nonviolent protest. This may be accomplished through Islamic teachings for, after all, the Quran says, "If you have taken an innocent life, it is as if you have killed all humanity."

Read the whole thing.

[Hat tip: The Corner]

Technorati Tag: Glasgow and Moderate Muslims and Javeed Akhter and Terrorism.