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