To the editor:
Both political cartoons on the editorial page of your June 2 edition referred to the recent concert bombing in London, England. One pointed out the absurdity of Islamic extremists targeting teenage girls. Yes, such evil people are extremists, but are they Islamic? According to numerous news sources, this was the third terrorist attack in England in 10 weeks. The bombing that killed 14-year-old Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, and 11-year-old Denise McNair at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on Sept. 15, 1963 was the third in 11 days, and one of very many. Were the members of the Christian Knights of the Ku Klux Klan who killed these young girls really Christian?
The other cartoon recognized the existence of ISIS, the so-called Islamic state. There are numerous Islamic nations or states, but they exist because they have geographic boundaries. ISIS cannot be a state because it is multinational, and it cannot be Islamic because of its evil intent. Yes, they use a false interpretation of Islam to justify their misdeeds, but is that new? Do you remember the Christian Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, the terrorist activity of the Jim Crow era and the violent resistance to the civil rights movement? If there is a lack of resistance to so-called ISIS by Islamic people and nations, is it because we insult their great peaceful majority by labeling extremism as “radical Islamic terrorism?”
Islamic people live and work among us here in our great nation. Sincere Muslims do not engage in terrorist activity. Neither do they take part in the immoral filth our “anything for profit” nation tolerates. Yes, although the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths all stem from Abraham, our beliefs and methods of worship differ. But do Muslim Americans watch, and would Islamic nations allow broadcasts of the Howard Stern and the Jerry Springer show?
Robert C. Currie Jr.
Laurinburg