The Scourge of Suicide Bombing

It is insane that young people give their lives through suicide bombings because some extremists whip up their emotions to a frenzy. Suicide bombing is a relatively recent phenomena.

In recent history, the first suicide bombing that I can recall was in 1991 when the handsome ex-Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi had his life snuffed out by a young Sri Lankan woman who blew herself up and him with her. Gandhi at the time was only 47 years old and apparently had a long political life ahead of him.

This craze then caught on with the young Palestinians and of late with not so young ones when a 64 year old grandmother blew herself up. Since then, this craze has spread to Iraq killing thousands of people and then to Afghanistan and now more recently to Pakistan.

Islam & the Koran explicitly forbid suicide in so much as it says that anyone committing suicide or taking the life of innocent people is destined to hell. The question for the Muslim world then is why are so many Muslims involved in suicide bombings? Mostly Muslims are killing Muslims. It is time for the Islamic scholars to come out openly and vocally against suicide bombings so that young impressionable men and women who are being used by the extremists are discouraged from these horrendous acts.

Unfortunately, the world seems to link terrorism with Islam. But terrorists have no religion. A terrorist is a terrorist regardless of his religion. It is time that terrorists are separated from Islam and the Muslim scholars of Al-Azhar (Egypt) and other countries stand up and have their voice heard to put an end to this scourge.

State of the Union

A less than impressive 49 minute speech with only a polite applause from the Democrats. Nancy Polosi looked rather uncomfortable except when he talked about health care when all Democrats rose in applause - but Dick Cheney stayed glued to his chair. The Democrats also cheered the President enthusiastically when he talked about immigration reform. Throughout the speech Bush seemed uptight, uncomfortable and less than convincing. He talked about Iraq with not much conviction, an issue that is most important to most Americans.

The strange thing was that Vice President Cheney sat and smirked through most of the speech and Codolozea Rice seemed to be on another planet.

This State of the Union address did not help Republicans any. If the President continues this course the Republicans are in danger of losing more seats in the House and Senate in 2008. With already the possibility of a Democratic President in 2008, checks and balances will be out of the window.

The Republican lawmakers may need to chart their own course to keep their seats and the balance of power which was so cherished by America's forefathers.