Denial in face of the facts
Reader comment on item: But he was good to his mother: Murdering for militant Islam

Submitted by Julia Reeves (United States), Dec 3, 2003 at 12:48

Regarding your story about members of Islam and their descriptions of these suicide bombers in favorable light sends the wrong message to me, and you are right when you state that it sheds suspicion over the entire religion. Knowing what these suicide bombers, etc., have carried out in the name of Islam, and making such comments of praise about them as individuals only leads me to believe that they condone their actions, and these, perhaps, are the people to be feared as much as those who murder for Islam.

Before 9/11, I personally had no singular feeling towards Islam one way or the other, but, gradually since 9/11 and with all the other attacks since, I have become highly suspicious of all practicioners of the religion. The fact that they do not condemn these heinous acts, is for me another reason to question them. I wrote a post in August, 2003 on the Internet in response to a suicide bomber who boarded a bus in Jerusalem and blew himself up killing 20 people, including children, and wounding scrores of others. He was a 30 year-old father of two who donned the garb of an observant Jew and blew himself up. He, according to what I read, was an ardent devotee of a "hard-line version of what the Koran meant: Establish a pure Islamic state......" He was said to have been Raed Abdel-Hamed Masq, a religious fanatic who, by the age of 16, had memorized the Koran, chapter and verse.

It is also said that he was consumed by religion, and he wanted it to consume others. He was a "member of the radical Muslim organization Hamas, which along with Islamic Jihad claimed responsibilkity for the bus explosion. His wife Arij Masq expressed gratitude stating "I'm proud that God allowed him to be a martyr." I was accused of a number of things by a fellow poster who became furious over the contents of my post. So, I would say that many of the Islamic faith either deny what is happening, or, worse, condone it.

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