The most glaring omission in Professor Ishtiaq Ahmed’s comprehensive analysis of the causes of terrorism (“The Muslim in liberal Europe,” Jan.22) is the sinister impact of Saudi Arabia’s militant Wahhabi Islam on world Muslims in general and Muslims in the liberal West in particular. Following the massacre of over 130 schoolchildren in Peshawar recently, The Dawn commented editorially that the increasing influence in Pakistan of Wahhabism played an important role in it. An article in The Irish Times (“Time to lift the veil on Saudi Arabia’s hijacking of Islam”, Jan.13), following the Charlie Hebdo killings, asserted: “For the vast majority of Muslims, the running story of sacrilege and provocation is not a few cartoons in secularist European newspapers; it is the Saudi iconoclastic attack on veneration of the Prophet. And yet we never hear about this when the question of ‘insulting’ the Prophet or disrespecting the sacred traditions of Islam is raised in Europe ....” My advice to Muslims living in the West is simple: Physician, heal thyself.
M. Riaz Hasan,Hyderabad
While the article did well in dwelling on the causes of rising Muslim terrorism, it should not foster any idea that the world should excuse the perpetrators. Another missing point is that almost every immigrant community has problems and this is not confined to the Muslim community. In Islamic states, non- Muslims are not exactly treated like royalty. The horror stories of blue-collar workers in some West Asian countries are well-known. The only way forward for the community to come out of the growing isolation is to overcome self-pity and move towards integrating itself with the society it lives in and adopts.
Prem Kumar Gutty,New Delhi
