*EPF305 10/16/2002
Excerpt: Boucher: Clerics Should Espouse Peace, Nonviolence
(State Spokesman says they should speak responsibly against terrorism) (320)

State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said everybody in the world, clerics included, has a responsibility to speak responsibly against terrorism and violence.

"[E]verybody in the world has the responsibility to speak responsibly and to understand that terrorism and violence are harmful to the cause that they espouse, as well as horrible for the people who are the innocent victims," Boucher said at the State Department briefing in Washington October 15.

"[T]hat's what we think the responsibility of clerics or others who espouse the religion have to their own religion, as well as to humanity," he added.

Following is an excerpt from Boucher's briefing:

(begin excerpt)

QUESTION: Let me ask a question about the responsibility of Muslim clerics. Pakistan, of course, just held elections and the MMA, a Muslim opposition group, thinks now that they can have a greater coalition role, and also there is a Laskar Jihad in Indonesia that just disbanded and folded just about the same time of this terrorist attack last weekend, and also in Israel they've just been forced to release a cleric, who, in an interview, was very outspoken against some of the condoning suicide bombings, or bombers, I should say. What is the responsibility? Are we talking to various governments to have them curtail some of this outright speech by some of these Muslim clerics?

MR. BOUCHER: I think not everybody you cited in there are clerics. We have always felt that everybody in the world has a responsibility to speak responsibly and to understand that terrorism and violence are harmful to the cause that they espouse, as well as horrible for the people who are the innocent victims.

The President, I think, again spoke on Friday about the fact that Islam is one of the world's great religions and it espouses a way of peace and nonviolence, and that's the way we see it. And that's what we think the responsibility of clerics or others who espouse a religion have to their own religion as well as to humanity.

(end excerpt)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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