Let us stop this madness

Muslims from around the have demonstrated against Pope Benedict on Friday, calling him the worse brutish names. This comes after the Pope has apologized for a statement he said was taken out of context and after calling a meeting with Muslim religious leaders.

Yet, in an audio tape on the Internet Thursday, Abu Ayyub al–Masri, chief of the al–Qaida in Iraq, urged his followers to capture foreigners in a bid to free a Muslim cleric jailed in the United States. The authenticity of the tape has not yet been verified.

The tape reportedly said, "I call on every holy fighter in Iraq to strive during this holy month (of Ramadan) ... to capture some Western Christians to exchange them for our imprisoned sheikh," al–Masri said in the tape whose authenticity could not be verified.

Fighting and dying for the jihad during the holy month is supposed to provide a better place in the "there after."

What's wrong with this picture?

Where are the moderate religious and government Muslim leaders to put an end to this religious lunacy.

The concept that dying for the jihad during Ramadam reinforces the stereotype that Muslims are violent in their religion which is what got the Pope in trouble in the first place.

The Pope can apologize all he wants.

If moderate Muslims do not change the mindset – that it is a religious victory to kill your enemy during the holiest month – then, nothing the Pope says or does will ever remove the concerns that certain practitioners of the Muslim religion are indeed promoters of violence for religious causes.

by Steve Sabludowsky