Nicholas Laughlin's blog etc.

"We are commanded to justice and excellence and to the support of all that is good and to vie with each other in doing good, and to conspire to do good. And we are invited to repent when we fall short.

"Our religion is the religion of peace, not of war. This fact seems lost to the ones who seek to promote jihad upon the world.

"There is no compulsion in the most important matter of religion in Islamic terms. How then can we impose anything else by force?

"It is increasingly clear that those who promote aggression against the world are motivated by megalomania and not by faith. They may claim to be acting as Muslims, but their actions are antithetical to the mores of Islam....

"May peace prevail in the world by the example of Muslim restraint.

"Eid Mubarak to all."

— M.F. Rahman, in a letter to the editor published in today's Express.