It is indeed tiring to read Malaysian politicians making statements of opinions on subjects larger than themselves or this nation. When Deputy Home Minister Chor Chee Heung said it is a fallacy to think that terrorism is linked to any particular religion, race or nationality, was he necessarily adequately qualified to make such a statement?

Agreed, he is the deputy minister, and being an MCA politician he has 'earned' a mention in the MCA-owned paper for his statement. But as for his opinion, I do not think he is sufficiently qualified to make any such a statement.

Why is he trying to be an apologist for terrorists whose commitment to their cause - at least according to them - is driven by their believes and convictions drawn from their understanding of their religion?

No one believes that suicide bombers do so for the greater good that they hope their communities or nation would benefit from their sacrifice, except maybe for the suicide bombers of the Tamil Tigers.

Whereas the Palestinian suicide bombers and the al-Qaeda sought martyrdom through their actions, there has not been any mention of the promise of martyrdom from the Tamil Tiger suicide bombers. We can ignore any other suicide bombers as being nothing more than idiots.

Early-day 'terrorists' like the German-based The Baader-Meinhof gang did not have as their driving force the conviction of any organised religion. It might have been some crazy notion of righteousness but certainly it was not any organised religion.

As for the terrorism of the Irish Republican Army, the identification of the two groups on their religious identities has nothing to do with their religious practices or provide a driving force to the violence and the terror. The two groups arise from convenient separation of people who had different allegiances motivated more by their wanting to maintain a connection to their ancestral homelands. Nothing to do with religion.

However, what is it that motivates the Malaysian terrorist bomber Azahari who is accused of making both the Bali Bomb and the Marriot bomb? What is it that justifies to him the correctness of his actions? Not poverty, injustice or anything else.

I would rather that instead of trying to be nice about it, we should to be right about it so that correct measures can be taken. I am not saying that the Islamic faith is at fault. It is more to do with individuals who have chosen to believe in certain tenets or convictions and believing and advocating and invoking this 'call' made on them, they feel justified in what they do.

If indeed there was a fault in the religion, I would imagine that the whole of the Muslim population would be a time bomb waiting to explode. But that is not happening.

The problem is, however, the inability of the majority of Muslims other than a handful of leaders, to demonise those who have hijacked the religion. The surprising and shocking realisation is the willingness to accommodate the violence of Sept 11 in one's head as a necessity that has to be accepted.

The excuses we have all heard to mitigate the damage done to Islam by Sept 11 is mind-boggling and scary when these are repeated by all kinds of professionals, educationists and doctors, politicians and lawyers and corporate big-wigs.

Fact: terrorism has been unleashed on the world. This time around the driving force is the convictions of these terrorists in the justice of their actions - as something derived from their Islamic faith. The question is, are Muslims going to keep quite and watch it all unfold or are they going to reclaim Islam?