I am sorry to tell that Mr. Sohail Ahmad’s second response (Re: Rebuttal to irrelevant issue, October 8, MM) was again another irrelevant Cow essay (Goruo Rochona) indeed. Thanks to Mr. Ahmad for awarding the readers of MM his another fabulous Gorur Rochona (Cowessay).  I do not see how his response is anyway related to my original essay (“Why Critique only Islam”) or with my “response to the critics!” http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/7818 ) on October 5, 2002 . I simply used an example (citing the incident of Palestine-Israel conflict) to demonstarte that media is fairly neutral, but that does not have anything to do with the core issue of the political conflict at all. 

We were debating (in my original essay) about the intimate connections of Islam and terrorism these days and later I was responding to some disagreements (with my opinions) of several participants in the MM. In neither of my essays—I never discussed the so called “contemporary Middle east politics”, which Mr. Ahmad is continuously delving in his response. It is mysterious to me why Mr. Ahmad is so occupied with the Middle east politics and trying to mix one problem with the other.

However, regarding the issue of terrorism, that is, his confusion about the definition of terrorism, all I can say that—according to me the suicide bombings or any other attempts solely to ‘target and kill’ the innocent public (man women and children indiscriminately) is the act of TERRORISM. Best examples: Palestinian’s suicide bombings to kill school children, bus passengers or September 11 horrific destruction of WTC. On the other hand, civilian killings by the American bombings which was targeted solely to ‘hit and kill’ al-Qaeda or Talibans (not to target and kill any civilians) is not an act of TERRORISM. Because it is absolutely an act of naiveté to believe that American soldiers bombed in Afghanistan to kill only civilians. In war some unlucky civilians always die as the side effects. Even own soldiers could die by the friendly fire. Hope this will clarify the definition of TERRORISM.