Glad that somebody besides me has noticed. From AP, with thanks to Nicolei:
CAIRO, Egypt — Islamic leaders Friday condemned the London bombings, though many said the United States and Britain, with their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, are ultimately to blame for fueling militant violence. Increasing voices, however, say the Arab world has to stop adding ”but” to its denunciations of terrorism….
”We are not trying to justify, only to analyze,” wrote Abdel-Bari Atwan, who lives in London and is editor-in-chief of the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper. ”We or any of our family members or friends could have been among the victims in London.
”But we must emphasize that the wars being waged now against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan and Palestine are the best way to recruit more terrorists and to expand the circle of armed attacks in the entire world.”
That stance was exactly what Khaled al-Huroub, a Palestinian writer living in Cambridge, England, said Arabs must avoid.
”It’s wrong even to say this is a crime we condemn but we must understand the reasons behind it — this could be seen as a justification,” he wrote in the London-based Arab daily Al-Hayat.
He called for ”a clear-cut position, with no ‘buts,’ calling a crime as it deserves to be called.”
Bravo.