Try another perspective

If Dorothy Carter, who in her Dec. 29 letter called on Muslim imams to condemn jihadists, would only go to a mosque to hear what is actually being “preached” by the imams, she would never have written it.

Indeed, there are imams and rabbis and pastors who preach violence. Assuming this is the norm is the result of bigotry and ignorance.

She suggests “young people might not join ISIS, al Qaida and other organizations that promote terror” if only a message would come from the pulpit.

Better to look instead to the source of the anger and desperation: decades-long violence against the people of primarily Muslim nations of the Middle East by the United States, Israel, Britain and France. Then ask her the question: “What draws young people to join terror organizations that invade, bomb and destroy hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, and generate millions of refugees willing to undergo unbelievable hardships in their desperation to avoid death, and to feed their children.”

Those organizations are called “armies,” and it is the catastrophic destruction they wreak that generates the anger we are so frightened of today.

What might we do if foreign armies bombed, destroyed and invaded our homeland?

Marianne Torres

Spokane