....Islam teaches that no human being is infallible. And that is why we all constantly seek Allah's Rahama. Says the Holy Book:

"... whoever forgives and makes reconciliation, his reward is with Allah..." Qr 42 v. 40.

"And verily, whoever shows patience and forgives, that would truly be from the things recommended by Allah" Q 42 v. 43

Saturday November 16 was our error, for which we feel very sorry. We recognise the gravity of this error, and we have handled it with all the seriousness it deserves, including very strong disciplinary measures for those who failed in their duties.

We therefore seek the understanding of our Muslim brothers and sisters and sincerely hope that in the spirit of the Holy month of Ramadan, and in the interest of our beloved country, Nigeria, we would show forgiveness and understanding. [ThisDay] Yes, we apologize for forcing you to riot, burn chruches and our office, kill at least 50 people, and in general behave like rampaging savages.

Rather thean the paper apologizing, it seems more appropriate for the paper and every other media voice on earth to demand that every single representative of Islam on every continent demand that the violence stop, condemn it unequivocally, denounce the use of violence as a form of protest. NOW is the time, THIS is the chance for the spokespersons of Islam to make their case, to prove their sincerity, to apologize and condemn the unspeakable behavior of their fellow adherents.

But thus far intellectual dishonesty, squeamishness, equivocation and dissembling not only dominates the Islamic sphere, but infects its apologists and political sympathizers as well - this from The Guardian one year ago:

The studied moral evasiveness, callous ness and plain nastiness of Said's article, with its refusal to condemn outright the attacks on America or show any sympathy for the victims or Americans, leave an unpleasant taste in the mouth of anyone whose moral sensibilities have not been blunted by political and Islamic correctness. In the face of all evidence, Said still argues that it was US foreign policy in the Middle East and elsewhere that brought about these attacks.

The unfortunate result is that academics can no longer do their work honestly. A scholar working on recently discovered Koranic manuscripts showed some of his startling conclusions to a distinguished colleague, a world expert on the Koran. The latter did not ask, "What is the evidence, what are your arguments, is it true?" The colleague simply warned him that his thesis was unacceptable because it would upset Muslims.

Very recently, professor Josef van Ess, a scholar whose works are essential to the study of Islamic theology, cut short his research, fearing it would not meet the approval of Sunni Islam. Gunter Luling was hounded out of the profession by German universities because he proposed the radical thesis that at least a third of the Koran was originally a pre-Islamic, Christian hymnody, and thus had nothing to do with Mohammed. One German Arabist says academics are now wearing "a turban spiritually in their mind", practicing "Islamic scholarship" rather than scholarship on Islam. Where biblical criticism has made important advances since the 16th century, when Spinoza demonstrated that the Pentateuch could not have been written by Moses, the Koran is virtually unknown as a human document susceptible to analysis by the instruments and techniques of biblical criticism.

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