The Hindu : Muslims urged to `resist' extremists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

International

International

Muslims urged to `resist' extremists

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MARCH 27. One of Britain's most respected and influential Christian leaders has urged moderate Muslims not to allow Islam to be hijacked by their extremist co-religionists claimed to be leading a religious struggle.

In remarks, which the Muslim community called `provocative' and `unhelpful', John Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Church of England, criticised Muslims for not coming out forcefully and unequivocally to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists acting in the name of Islam.

"We look to them to condemn suicide bombers and terrorists who use Islam as a weapon to destabilise and destroy innocent lives. Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn clearly and unconditionally the evil of suicide bombers who kill innocent people.

We need to hear outright condemnation of theologies that state that suicide bombers are martyrs...,'' he said in a lecture in Rome as his successor Rowan Williams, a strong advocate of a dialogue between Christians and Muslims, prepared to address a conference of Christian and Islamic scholars in New York.

Dr. Carey's comments, in which he called Islam authoritarian, inflexible and resistant to `modernity', were denounced by the Muslim Council of Britain. It said that mainstream Muslim organisations had `consistently' condemned terrorist attacks but their views were often ignored by the media.

Non-Muslim commentators feared that Dr. Carey's attack on Islamic culture could fuel the alienation already felt by Britain's Muslim community.

"Muslim leaders will interpret it as evidence of the Islamophobia that they claim is endemic in the West,'' The Times said. The right-wing Telegraph, which led with Dr. Carey's statement under the heading, "Muslim culture has contributed little for centuries'', called it the "most forthright by a senior Church leader''.

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