The DI’s coverage (12/1) of the Mumbai atrocities, an AP wire story, has the bizarre headline “Muslims condemn attacks on Mumbai as foolish terrorism.” Is there any doubt that over 99.99% of the world’s Muslims condemn these events? Nor do they support any kind of terrorism, foolish or otherwise. The origins and motives of the perpetrators are not yet clear.

Nevertheless, it is misguided from the outset to understand such events in fundamentally religious terms, with only secondary reference to regional conflict (India, Pakistan, Kashmir), class/caste politics within India, or the general conditions created by our insane “war on terror.”

The latter has been used to justify invasion, occupation, and destruction in a predominately Islamic region of the world that happens to produce vast amounts of oil. The consequences of our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, our manipulation of Pakistan, and our continued support for Israel’s occupation of Palestine have created numerous hells on Earth (dwarfing Mumbai’s), from Kabul to Gaza and beyond. Our geopolitical ambitions do nothing to promote reconciliation in this region, to say the least.

The article has the equally bizarre dateline of Ramallah, West Bank (that’s Palestine, the word that cannot be spoken). How did Palestinians and Hamas get mixed up in this story? Oh yeah, we have to take every chance to imply that “Islamofascism” is behind all this, including Israel/Palestine, rather than American-supported Zionist ethnic cleansing, apartheid, forced starvation, and incipient genocide.

The article outrageously refers to the killing of hundreds of Israeli civilians, without context, as if Israel hasn’t been terrorizing and murdering Palestinians for over 60 years, and as if it isn’t getting ready to finally finish them off.

Perhaps, for a change, the DI might pass on the opportunity to gratuitously denigrate the most sadistically crushed and abandoned people on Earth.

David Green

University employee