With regard to the recent atrocities in the US and many letters showing anger on behalf of the US, I would like to say that I too am outraged. As a Muslim who follows the fundamentals of Islam, I condemn the attacks on the World Trade Center as it involved innocent civilians.

But does anybody know that 19 years ago, the greatest terrorism in modern Middle Eastern history began? On Sept 16, 1982, Israel's militia allies started their three-day orgy of rape and murder in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla that cost 1,800 lives.

It followed an Israeli invasion of Lebanon - designed to drive the Palestine Liberation Organisation out of the country and given the green light by the then US Secretary of State, Alexander Haig - which cost the lives of 17,500 Lebanese and Palestinians, almost all of them civilians. That's probably three times the death toll of the WTC.

Yet I do not remember any vigils or memorial services or candle-lighting in America or the West for the innocent dead of Lebanon and Palestine; I don't recall any stirring speeches about democracy or liberty. Not a single American or European newspaper has the courage to make extensive coverage on these stories. Instead of acting on these terrorists, America recklessly threw its weight behind Israel's 34-year illegal military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as the Palestinian intifada rages.

The West justified themselves that military retaliation against countries who harbour terrorists is the only effective means to combat terrorism. And it seems as if the bombing of Afghanistan will become a reality very soon.

But what about other countries which have and harbour terrorists? The Northern Ireland's Irish Republican Army terrorists have bombed London numerous times in a much more cowardly manner - killing others but not willing to kill themselves. Why isn't there aggressive military retaliation against them?

It may be that the definition of 'terrorists' in this case is different from the one that struck the US. It is therefore not surprising that even Ariel Sharon (a man whose name will always be associated with the massacre at Sabra and Shatilla) announces that Israel also wishes to join the battle against 'world terror'.