Tell it, Mr. Usman And Mr. Ihsanoglu.

ISLAMIC GROUP CALLS FOR END TO RIOTS

By AMIR SHAH
Associated Press Writer

KABUL, Afghanistan: Police shot four protesters to death Wednesday to stop hundreds from marching on a southern U.S. military base, as Islamic organizations called for an end to deadly rioting across the Muslim world over drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

"Islam says it's all right to demonstrate but not to resort to violence. This must stop," said senior cleric Mohammed Usman, a member of the Ulama Council, Afghanistan's top Islamic organization. "We condemn the cartoons but this does not justify violence. These rioters are defaming the name of Islam."

Other members of the council went on radio and television Wednesday to appeal for calm. It followed a statement released Tuesday by the United Nations, European Union and the world's largest Islamic group urging an end to violence.

"Aggression against life and property can only damage the image of a peaceful Islam," said the statement released by Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the EU chief Javier Solana.

Note By Republicus: That's good news. The key to the strategy to win the war on terror is the hope that, with systemic reformation--enabled by Western military intervention-- giving "Power to the People" (e.g. encouraging, enabling, and supporting democratic governments), change will occur from the grass-roots level, from the bottom up.

Unfortunately, that backfired, as we could see from the election results both in Iran, Palestine, and Iraq (the potential for problems in the latter will--hopefully--be tempered by what is the most progressive constitution in the Middle East).

But what we're seeing is change occuring from within the upper echelons of Islamic leadership, influence from the top down...