JEDDAH, 18 May 2003 — The Muslim World League (MWL) said yesterday that terrorism was the most dangerous challenge facing Muslim countries and called for a broadly-based front to eradicate it.
“The Islamic nation is at a difficult turning point in which challenges are increasing, the most dangerous of which is terrorism which has badly harmed Islam and Muslims,” MWL Secretary-General Dr. Abdullah Al-Turki said in a statement.
He said terrorist organizations were raising Islamic slogans to win the support of Muslim youth. He stressed the need to educate Muslim youth on the true teachings of Islam.
The Makkah-based organization issued the statement following terrorist attacks in Morocco, just five days after similar bombings in Riyadh.
Turki emphasized the need for cooperation between Islamic governments and organizations, scholars, propagators and media men to fight terror.
“Such an alliance must focus on dealing with extremism in religion, and ways to rectify the misconceptions imbibed by young generations from the misguided terror gangs,” he said.
Religious scholars, schools and the media in the Islamic world should convey to young generations the true teachings of Islam, and warn them against intellectual deviation, Turki added.
Such an alliance must execute joint programs aimed at providing “immunity to young Muslims against misconceptions on suicide bombing, killing people and committing terrorist acts under the name of Jihad,” he said.
The MWL chief said the terror attacks in Saudi Arabia and Morocco have raised questions about “the suspicious objectives of the terror gangs, working under the Islamic banner, which have incited international forces against Islam and Muslims.”
Turki expressed the MWL’s readiness to cooperate with government agencies and private organizations in the Islamic world to conduct programs for protecting Muslim youth from deviant groups.
In Jeddah, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) strongly condemned the bombings in Morocco.
The OIC “strongly condemns these vicious acts carried out by people devoid of all values, morals and faiths, especially Islam which forbids the killing of innocent life,” OIC Secretary-General Abdelouahed Belkeziz said.
“These heinous crimes, which aimed at terrifying innocent people, killing them and destabilizing Morocco, will also increase the distortion of the image of Islam and fuel anti-Islamic campaigns,” he said.
