THE EDITOR, Sir:THE word "terrorism" has been
defined as "The use of violence and threats to intimidate and coerce;
especially for political purposes" and I will add, "also for
religious purposes".
There are many religions in the world today.
Judaism of the Hebrews with their father Abram, is reputedly the oldest,
founded in 1300 B.C. Then Buddhism and Hinduism both founded about 500 B.C.
Then Christianity A.D. 2 or thereabouts and last Islam, founded by Mohammed in
or around A.D. 600. Of course, there are others and, last but not least, those
that have no religiosity at all which could be even older than Judaism
itself.
My argument is this: Why in this world of
today most terrorists are generally assumed to be of Islamic and Arabic origin?
The story goes that Abram had two sons, one
by his wife Sarah, - Isaac - and one by his maid Hagar - Ishmael. The story
says that Isaac was father of the Jews and Ishmael was father of the Arabs. I
wont impute any motive but there is something very strange when I reflect on
today's terrorism.
I am, etc
RAYMOND K. GOLDSMITH
Main Street, Ocho Rios
