Groups rapped for cowardly actions

Groups rapped for cowardly actions

Both the major Bahasa Malaysia dailies hit out at the so-
called freedom fighters who carry out violent attacks in the name
of jihad (struggle), saying that their actions only served to
ruin the image of Islam.

Berita Harian said many groups, under the guise of jihad or
mujahidin, had diverted from the original, noble struggle of
jihad and had no similarity with the history of Islamic heroes or
fighters.

"On the contrary, these groups carry out attacks without cause
and their targets are not any specific groups of enemies.

"Only they know what their struggle is about but it is
definitely out of the true boundaries of jihad," the newspaper
said in an editorial.

The groups or individuals chose the militant path and,
unfortunately, many of the victims are the aged, women and
children.

"They're more like aggressors, frowned upon by Islam which
preaches peace, it said, adding that the danger of misusing
religion for personal objectives is immense.

"While these individuals may think they are brave, they are
actually cowards for wounding unarmed civilians.

"Their actions have nothing to do with Islam but
unfortunately, Islam gets the bad name," it said.

Utusan Malaysia stressed that the groups' actions jeopardized
the image of Islam and violated the essence of the religion.

"Islam does not teach us to steal, kill, destroy places of
worship of other religions or putting the lives of others at
stake," it said in an editorial.

"Those who carry these out in the name of jihad are traitors
to the race, religion and nation."

The paper pointed out that the methods used by Afghanistan's
Mujahidin against the communists could not be applied here.

The newspaper said the awareness about the real jihad must be
instilled by religious teachers.

"As many militant KMM members are PAS members or are closely
linked to PAS, the party has a duty to rectify any wrong
perception of jihad," it said.

-- The Star, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia