Mixed media: Atrocities in the name of religion

ALWAYS WRONG

BBC REPORT - Christian and Islamic leaders in Liverpool have united to condemn Kenneth Bigley's Iraqi hostage-takers. The Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, and Akbar Ali, Liverpool Mosque chairman, said the terrorists have no right to use the name of God. They also said "taking hostages and murdering them is completely and utterly un-Islamic". Mr Ali said the hostage-takers can only be described as "terrorists".

AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM - The deliberate killing of innocent people is always wrong. Muslims know this in their bones, just as non-Muslims do. There is no need to consult the Koran to find the appropriate passage ... Some things are universal. Condemning other Muslims as evil to a Western audience is probably the hardest challenge Australian Muslims have faced. It must feel like betraying your own kind. But this taboo needs to be broken.
- Shahram Akbarzadeh in the Age, Melbourne

AMERICAN BUSINESS NEWSWIRE - The Council on American-Islamic Relations today condemned the murder of American civil engineer Eugene Armstrong in Iraq and called for the immediate release of all hostages. The Washington-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group said: "As American Muslims and people of conscience, we unequivocally reject the claim that any cause could possibly be advanced by the killing of civilians."
- PR Newswire

BRITISH EXTREME RIGHT - As an increasingly growing voice for the British people, the BNP calls upon the groups representing Muslims living in Britain to condemn this brutality. The war in Iraq is not our war; it was and remains George Bush's war to secure oil for American corporations and make the Middle East safer for Israelis. A failure to condemn such barbarism can only be interpreted as silent approval of the tactics of these terror gangs in Iraq.
- British National Party website

WEBLOG CONTRIBUTOR - I am comforted knowing that Hell is filled with the Muslim extremists and that Heaven is now the home of the innocents who have been murdered. The Muslim god is a dead god.
- Frank Falvo on/Drink This

AMERICAN CHRISTIAN SITE - Islamist terrorists keep insisting they are fighting for Islam, but our Government and media insist Islam is peaceful, that these terrorists have hijacked a great religion. The only thing hijacked is the truth.
- Renew America

ROOTS OF TERROR

ARAB WEBSITE - The West must acknowledge the Islamic and Arab culture, the identity of Arabs and Muslims, and their rights. The West should admit terrorism springs from the oppression that the region is living under because of the remnants of colonialism, Zionist crimes and Israeli aggression, not to mention the bias of the US towards Israel. Once the Western world recognises this, we could start taking practical steps towards combating terrorism.
- Dar Al-Hayat

HOSTAGE-TAKER - These [the Americans] are the most cowardly of God's creatures. They are an easy quarry, praise be to God. We ask God to enable us to kill and capture them to sow panic among those behind them.
- Purported message from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi quoted on CPA Iraq

TURKISH WEBSITE - The issue of whether it is proper to kill Muslims taken captive because of their links to the US military has been a hot topic on Islamic websites. Some people appealed to the kidnappers to spare the Turks because they were "fellow Muslims". Others urged militants to decapitate them. "Turkish Muslims should be the first to demand that those hypocrites be beheaded, as they are allied with the devil," meaning the Americans, wrote one person on a website that has published al-Zarqawi statements. "They should serve as an example to every apostate."
- Turkishdailynews