Tyler

By COSHANDRA DILLARD and PATRICK BUTLER
Staff Writers

After about 60 hours of gunfire in Mumbai, India, it appears the massive terrorist attacks that killed an estimated 195 people including eight Americans, have ceased.

While a previously unknown group has claimed responsibility, suspicions ran high among "unnamed counterterrorism officials" that a rouge militant sub-section of Pakistan's Inter-Service Intelligence was responsible, reported the Times of India. Whether there were overt Islamic terror links was still unclear.

Local leaders of the East Texas Islamic Society expressed sorrow for those killed and dismay that the brutal killings were connected in any form to religion.

Syed Absar Hasan, a Tyler speech therapist, is a native of Hyderabad, located in southern India. He attended school in Mumbai from 1988-1991 when the city was still named Bombay. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1996. Through the years, there have been other instances of violence at the hands of extremists in Mumbai, but last week's attacks are the worse he's seen, Hasan said.

While he has no family or friends directly affected by the attacks in Mumbai, he said he fears that if in fact those who are responsible acted in the name of the Islamic faith, it will again create more prejudice against those who are Muslim.

Hasan recounted when innocent Muslims would get flagged at checkpoints and harassed after Muslim extremists' attacks.

"Whoever is doing this, it is not the right thing to do," he said. "It hurts other people who live peacefully."

Those responsible do not adhere to the true values of Islam, he said.

"I think it is Anti-Islamic," he said. "It feels bad and it's just hard to take in because it goes against the teachings of Islam. Even in acts of warfare, women, children and buildings are not to be destroyed."

Anwar Khalifa, a board member of the East Texas Islamic Society, said events in India "were sickening" and the result of "agenda" seeking.

"These were attacks done by people wanting attention and wanting to push a cause," Khalifa said. "This is all about politics and greed. It's about money. It's not about religion."

Terrorists have often used religion as an "excuse" he said.

"It's always been that way, not just now," he said. "More people have died in the fight for the cause of a compassionate God, it seems, than anything else. It makes no sense. It's just an excuse. God doesn't want us to kill anybody."

Both Khalifa and Hasan expressed condolences for the victims.

"We don't do right by God to kill our fellow man," Khalifa said. "We're put on this earth to take care of people, not kill them. I send condolences to those lost innocent lives in India - and victims of terrorism elsewhere in the world, whether they be Hindu, Jewish, Christian or Muslim in Africa, Asia, Europe or India."

Hasan serves as an Imam, or a prayer leader, once a month at the Mosque. He said he will keep the victims in mind during his sermons.

"I will pray for people to maintain calm," he said. "And for people who live there and those who have families stuck in India to have patience."

Terrorist attacks affect all people, Khalifa said.

"It's a terrible situation that could happen in India, Europe, Africa or right here in America," he said.

"No one can say that this is something far away and it doesn't affect us. This should hurt all of us, because you can be the one that's next. We should all be upset about it."