MORE BLOOD ON ISLAM

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto in Rawalpindi, Pakistan is one more glaring and bloody example of the moral degeneracy of militant Islam. The former leader of Pakistan was killed for two primary reasons: 1)She was a woman, and to a Muslim fundamentalist, a woman in a position of power is an abomination. (2) She wanted to pull Pakistan into the 21st. century by revitalizing its economy. To a religion bent on keeping its mindset in the seventh century, the very idea of economic and technological progress is akin to blasphemy, and therefore something to fear and attack.

There is no question that it took enormous courage for Bhutto to return to Pakistan, knowing the opposition she faced.She was ousted as President in 1996 over charges of rampant corruption in her administration. The validity of these charges have never been fully adjudicated. Nonetheless, the Pakistani middleclass saw her as their salvation. India, their neighbor as well as their enemy, along with China has had one of the most dynamic economies in the world over the past decade. Understandably, a large segment of the Pakistani's want a piece of that action. They saw Benazir Bhutto as someone who could set their country in that direction. Now with her killing comes the question: Will free elections come to Pakistan as scheduled in January, and if so, who will oppose President Musharraf?

Once again, a religion whose credo is violence, and whose dogma is saturated with the blood of innocent victims has brought chaos to a region in desperate need of entering the 21st. century and the community of civilized nations.