Muslim clerics condemn attacks on US

Mogadishu religious leaders, who have been holding a meeting on the terrorist attacks in the United States, have condemned them as un-Islamic, one of the participants told IRIN on Wednesday. Shaykh Sharif Shaykh Muhyiddin said Islam "neither condones nor sanctions what happened in America". He described the attacks as "outrageous". Islam opposed any form of destruction, particularly the destruction of innocent human lives, he added. He also cautioned that "a wrong should not be righted with another wrong". "It would be an injustice for Muslims to be unduly punished" for the actions of few misguided individuals, he said. Shaykh Sharif warned against turning what had happened into a war against one religion. What had happened in America had nothing to do with religion, he explained. The meeting was attended by representatives of most of the most prominent tariqahs in Somalia - mystical orders of orthodox Sunni Islam.