Osama bin Laden’s jihad against the US is holding the whole of the Islamic world “hostage,” but the US must do a better job of reassuring the world’s Muslims they are not the target of US rage, a Cambodian lawmaker said Wednesday.
Nan Sy, an ethnic Cham parliamentarian from Kompong Chhnang province, said that while he supported the US attacks against Afghanistan, civilian casualties must be avoided, and the US and its allies must do a better job of making clear to all Muslims this war is not directed against their religion.
“If there is no clear explanation to all of Islam’s people, the distrust and division among the world’s Muslims will remain, and they will think the US attacks are destroying Islam,” Nan Sy said, speaking at an unrelated parliamentary conference.
Already, protests in predominately Muslim Indonesia and Pakistan over the bombings have led to violence.
If the US and its allies cannot get their message out to the world’s Muslims, reactionary forces like bin Laden’s will be able “to take our Islam hostage,” Nan Sy said. “Then this war will never end.”
