12-01-2008, 01:26 AM
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#2
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Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Okolona, Ky.
Posts: 6,142
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Muslims chagrined by violence...
Muslims condemn Mumbai attacks, worry about image
1 Dec 2008, Muslims from the Middle East to Britain and Austria condemned Sunday the Mumbai shooting rampage by suspected Islamic
militants as senseless terrorism, but also found themselves on the defensive once again about bloodshed linked to their religion.
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Intellectuals and community leaders called for greater efforts to combat religious fanaticism. Indian police said on Sunday that the only surviving gunman told them he belongs to the Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. The group is seen as a creation of Pakistani intelligence to help fight India in the disputed Kashmir region. Another group, Jaish-e-Mohammed, has also operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.
Ten gunmen attacked 10 targets in the three-day assault including a Jewish community center and luxury hotels in India's commercial hub. More than 170 people were killed. Many Muslims said they are worried such carnage is besmirching their religion. "The occupation of the synagogue and killing people in hotels tarnishes the Muslim faith," said Kazim al-Muqdadi, a political science lecturer at Baghdad University. "Anyone who slaughters people and screams `Allahu Akbar' (God is Great) is sick and ignorant."
In Britain, home to nearly two million Muslims, a spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, Inayat Bunglawala, said that "a handful of terrorists like this bring the entire faith into disrepute." A previously unknown Muslim group, Deccan Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attacks. The name suggests origins in India.
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Militants have power to start regional war: Zardari
1 Dec 2008, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks in Mumbai, saying militants
have the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
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Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by militants last year, warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbours. "Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari in an interview with the Financial Times.
"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated (the) 9/11 (attacks on the United States) or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari. "Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace." The Mumbai assaults that killed nearly 200 people bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India.
Indian officials have said most, perhaps all, of the 10 militants who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947. The fallout from the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India's commercial centre, has threatened to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.
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India claims Mumbai gunman tied to Pakistani group
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