In an opinion piece in the Moroccan daily Aujourd'hui Le Maroc, columnist Omar Dahbi criticizes Islamists who condemn terror attacks against Muslims, but not terrorism as such.
The following are excerpts: [1]
Are They Condemning the Act Itself or the Targeting of Muslims?
"...When an Islamist leader or Imam condemn 'the terrorist act that targets the lives of Muslims,' this poses a real problem. What are they condemning, the act itself or the fact that it targeted Muslims? When they invoke hadiths that attest to the sanctity of 'Muslim blood' in their arguments, does this not legitimize, at the same time, the killing of 'infidels'?
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"When one salutes, in certain media venues, the courage and heroism of Hamas suicide bombers while accusing those who have chosen the path of peace and dialogue of 'betraying the ummah and Islam,' does not one launch a thinly disguised appeal to young Moroccans to go down the same path?
"The fact that the suicide bomber at Sidi Moumen, Abdelfettah Raydi, wandered the streets of Casablanca for four days strapped with an explosives belt looking for a place to blow himself up – does this not say something to those who present the suicide bombers of Hamas as heroes?"
"What is the Difference Between Killing Civilians in Casablanca and [Killing Civilians] in Tel Aviv?"
"What is the difference between the act of killing civilians in Casablanca and [the act of killing civilians] in Tel Aviv? To applaud those who explode themselves on a bus in Haifa is a way of legitimizing terrorism.
"To be against terrorism means to denounce any harm to human life as such, and to condemn the ambiguity of the discourse of hatred and intolerance. Glorifying acts of carnage elsewhere and denouncing them in one's own home is an act of hypocrisy that should no longer be tolerated."
[1] Aujourd'hui Le Maroc (Morocco), March 23, 2007.
