I write this in response to Wan Sou Hai's letter titled 'Terrorists or Warriors?', (Sept 26). First, let me say that I have no idea how Mr Wan knows the thought processes of terrorists unless he is in direct contact with the likes of Osama bin Laden, but I will try my best to respond to his particular line of logic nonetheless. Obviously, we are assuming that the terrorists are absolutely rational in their thinking.

Concerning Mr Wan's first point, there is no doubt about an American bias towards Israel, but a logical and reasonable person would also take into account America's support for Muslims over the years. The best example is the US military interventions against Serbia in support of Bosnians and Kosovars respectively.

Granted that the interventions may have been less prompt than desired, but they did occur and were successful. Moreover, no critical national interest dictated the US response, and most of the evidence so far clearly suggests that Washington was primarily animated by human rights consideration when it finally decided to help the Bosnians and Kosovars.

There have also been cases when America's national interest drove the US to help Muslims, notably the Kuwaitis against the Iraqi invasion (to protect access to oil) and Afghans against the Soviet occupation (as part of the wider Cold War).

Nevertheless, support is support, and no logical-minded person can deny that US foreign policy is not driven by a blind hatred of all nations and things Islamic.

As for the second point concerning the author's assertion of the existence of a single Islamic consciousness and world, the historical record speaks for itself. Muslims have been divided from nearly the very beginning.

The Shias to this day mourn the defeat of Hussain ibn Ali at the hands of fellow Muslims at Karbala in 680 AD. More recently, supposed religious solidarity did not stop the Iraqis and Iranians from slaughtering each other during their war in the 1980s, which claimed one million Muslim lives.

Algerian terrorists fighting for the cause of an Islamic state did not have any problems murdering and raping scores of their co-religionists in their recent insurrection. One should also not forget that the Taliban and Iran nearly came to blows a few years ago over the Taliban's murder of Iranian diplomats and massacre of Shia Afghans.

I can understand why Muslims feel antipathy towards Israel, but if they are rational, then they should also be prepared to denounce and fight those of their own kind who have done terrible things to fellow Muslims, and do it just as strongly as they denounce and fight non-Muslims.

Mr Wan's third point is the most ridiculous of them all. Just because Muslim fighters are fighting a non-Muslim enemy does not make the struggle a jihad (holy war) automatically. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) is populated overwhelmingly by Muslims, but it has not proclaimed jihad against Israel. Similarly, the Bosnian Muslim government never proclaimed jihad against the Serbian aggressors.

I am not a Muslim, but I understand that jihad is not something to be launched at a whim. There are clear rules defining what is and what is not a jihad , and also rules restricting conduct during a jihad , for example the killing of innocent women and children is clearly proscribed.

The last point I will address is the fifth one. The attack on the WTC was done to create maximum casualties. If the sole aim was, as the writer claims, to destroy a symbol of America's economic might, they are other targets laden with greater financial symbolism, notably the NYSE (located near the WTC) and the Federal Reserve building in Washington DC.

However, these targets would not have yielded as high a casualty rate as bringing down the WTC. Furthermore, the author clearly does not know his Wall Street history. Morgan Stanley has a long history of being a WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) bastion.

In fact, JP Morgan (founder of JP Morgan and by extension the Morgan Stanley offshoot) is notorious for having uttered several anti-Semitic statements during his lifetime. If it is a Jewish bank the terrorists wanted to hit, they should have attacked the Goldman Sachs (founded by Jews) building a few streets away, but that building is much smaller.

These are my responses to Mr Wan's challenge, and I hope they are adequate to enlighten him.