Muslims shouldn't justify murder

The mood in Indonesia now after the Bali bomb is one of deep shame and trying to come to grips with how something like this could happen in the great Republic.

This is a nation that prides itself on its religious tolerance and great traditions as a leading light of the Non-Aligned Group of Nations. Religious tolerance, enshrined in Indonesia's Constitution, is part of the life of Indonesia's Muslim population, the other 10 percent being Hinduism, Catholic, Protestant and Buddhist.

Many Indonesians are now questioning the concept of non- alignment, and are seeing that some issues are worth pursuing with other concerned nations, and this vast group of people is praying that the Bali bomb was not the work of so called Islamic militants.

The central core of Islam is the following of the straight and righteous path which is the first part of what the Koran calls the supreme triumph. The righteous path is clearly defined in the Koran. To walk that path, a Muslim should be devout, sincere, patient, humble, charitable and chaste.

What has happened in Bali is a terrible atrocity against all mankind. If by some awful truth, these killers are Islamic militants, surely they are not of Islam. Surely the Bali killers and the bin-Ladens of the world, the tyrants who use weapons of mass destruction against their own people and fund mass terrorism follow an evil path, a path that is most definitely not of Islam, a path of repeated and deliberate errors.

No man or woman of any religion could say the Bali bombers, have done good works, and because of their deliberate errors, have surely left the path of righteousness. How could any Muslim support a concept of God that included the mass murder of innocent people? It is the Word of God that condemns terrorism in Islam. Thus it is written in the Koran. And it is certainly time for the world's religious leaders of Islam to speak out and also condemn these outrageous men who shame Islam in the eyes of the world.

Whatever your religion, the Bali bomb was an abomination of evil. Something like this hurts every man and woman's concept of what it means to be human. It is times like this that one turns to God and asks: "Why?"

GREG WARNER

Jakarta