HONOLULU -- A conference in Mecca of Islamic leaders representing Muslims in a wide swath from Morocco through the Middle East and South Asia to the southern Philippines has issued a rare but resounding denunciation of terror, saying that violence must be condemned "in all its forms and manifestations."
Hardly anyone outside of the Muslim world, however, seems to have heard about the Islamic pronouncement. Therefore, the "Mecca Declaration" approved by the Islamic leaders is not likely to counter the common complaint in the West that few prominent Muslims have condemned the terrorists who have given Islam a bad name.
An Arab editor, Abd al-Rahman al-Rashid, has been an exception, writing: "It is certainly true that not all Muslims are terrorists but, sadly, we have to say that the majority of the terrorists in the world are Muslims." Many Americans, in particular, have faulted moderate Muslims for not taking a position against terror.
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