I would like to respond to Dr Tan's letter on his 'Rebuttal of 'terror' logic', Sept 27. At times I feel he is contradicting himself. One does not have to be a terrorist to feel the frustration and anger the "terrorists" feel, as long as one shares the feelings of the people being severely oppressed and victimised (the Palestinians), you are not there to understand what propels them to fight and retaliate. However, this does not justify the killing of innocent people.

Muslims do jihad (holy war), it only means struggle to your fullest to achieve an aim. I state to differ strongly with Dr Tan's interpretation of jihad. Israel's occupation of Palestine and Bosnia's quagmire are both instances worthy of the title jihad by any standard.

It is incumbent on the Muslims of that land and Muslims in general to participate in any jihad most suitable for them and most fruitful. This does not however mean killing innocent civilians, destroying non-military targets, destroying properties so on and so forth.

I concur with Dr Tan that Islam places great emphasis on war conducts, evidently more so than modern day war ethics.

I again would like to emphasise that there is no justification what so ever to attack New York and kill so many civilians, the perpetrators must be punished. On the same breath, America must look at themselves, what have made them targets for terrorists ?