— I liked this letter in the Japan Times online
In many ways, today’s religious extremists are no different from the Marxist extremists of a bygone era. West Germany, Europe’s richest country during the Cold War, was the birthplace of the Baader-Meinhof terrorist group, and in Italy, another rich country, the Red Brigades carried out violent attacks in the name of socialism for years. Japan, the world’s second-richest country, suffered one of the deadliest terrorist attacks in 1995. The terrorists, members of a religious cult, were from the affluent middle class.
Most of the terrorists who attacked the World Trade Center were from oil-rich Saudi Arabia; their leader was a Saudi millionaire. This belies the contention that terrorism is the product of poverty and deprivation. The issue of poverty should be addressed on its own merits. The fight against terrorism must be a military one, and Afghanistan can serve as a model. Only after the menace of terrorism is lifted can the world address the serious problems of poverty and underdevelopment.
MAHMOOD ELAHI
Ottawa, Canada
There are sane people all over the world, many of them Arabs.