True faith vs. corruption

There remains a quandary for many Americans in assessing the great divide between the fundamental teachings of the Quran and ruthless terrorism preached by Islamic extremists: Will Muslims worldwide heed the call to subvert their Islamic faith and pursue the anti-America fanaticism of Osama bin Laden•

Muslims firmly rooted in the tenets of their religion will not, for there is a clear distinction between what they believe and what the practitioners of bin Laden's corruption advocate. And no matter how bin Laden's apologists endeavor to characterize it, this is not a religious war.

But, as with the harvest of any religion, not all roots reach the same depth.

Many are the vivid, disturbing images from Pakistan, Oman, Indonesia, Egypt, Sudan and elsewhere of frenzied crowds waving bin Laden's portrait and burning American flags.

On the other hand, there also have been hundreds of defections from the ruling Taliban to Afghanistan's freedom-fighting Northern Alliance.

The Taliban, as President Bush has made clear, is on the run and will say anything or advance any 'deal' to save what's left of its hide. Perhaps shallow, weak-minded adherents of Islam in other nations will be convinced to join the doomed plight of those who shelter terrorists or advocate their cause. But a wide-scale conversion of Muslims to this misbegotten cause•

'The Quran says: 'Fight those who fight you, but don't transgress. Do not let the injustice of others lead you to injustice,'' says Khaled Abou El Fadl, an Islamic law scholar at UCLA.

What could be more clear for the true followers of Islam•