HANOVER, Germany, March 29 (UPI) -- With uncharacteristic bluntness, top Christian clerics in Europe are criticizing Muslim leaders for not censuring suicide attacks unequivocally.
"We appeal to our fellow Muslim citizens and their organizations to speak up, in the name of their Islamic faith, against suicide attacks and deny them their religious legitimization," the governing council of the state-related Evangelical (Protestant) Church in Germany, or EKD, said Monday.
Echoing an earlier statement by the Vatican, the EKD scolded "Palestinian terrorists" for "recruiting children with deceptive promises to commit suicide bombings."
Earlier, George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, attacked the failure of most Muslim leaders to condemn these outrages.
"Sadly, apart from a few courageous examples, very few Muslim leaders condemn -- clearly and unconditionally -- the evil; of the suicide bombers who kill innocent people," Carey declared in a lecture at Rome's Gregorian University.
The Muslim League of Britain countered, "Mainstream Muslim organizations have consistently condemned terrorist attacks of all kinds."
