Stop using your eyes and your mind, says Malaysia’s Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. From Asia News Network, with thanks to Twostellas and Laika:
However, he said the most damaging of all was the increasing tendency to attribute linkages between international terrorism and Islam. “The time has arrived for us to debunk, once and for all, the theory that there is a clash of civilisations,” he told the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly here on Monday.
“We must cease associating Islam with violence, poverty and indignity,” he said, adding that in reality these troubles had nothing to do with Islam and neither were they exclusively in the domain of Muslims.
Abdullah, certainly violence, poverty, and indignity are not the exclusive province of Muslims. No one is saying they are. But stop associating Islam with terrorism? I would respectfully ask you to direct such requests to Mr. Osama bin Laden, Mr. Abu Hamza, Mr. Shamil Basayev, and to other people who say things like this.