Letters

Indonesia: Again
Your article on the suicide bombing in Jakarta focused on the terrorism still prevalent in Indonesia [Sept. 20]. That attack came less than two years after the October 2002 bombing on the island of Bali that killed 202 people. Indonesians today are praying for peace in the region and an end to terrorist activities. The devastation in Indonesia has shocked the world and clearly shows that Muslim nations are strongly affected by terrorism, the same way other countries are. Peace is something the region demands.
Akshay Mor
Bombay

Instead of exploring the hard ways to win over the West, such as with knowledge-based achievements, young radical Muslims are indulging in mindless violence, justifying it by quoting holy texts. They are only bringing down Islam. They serve neither their cause nor the holy text and only bring revulsion for Islam in the eyes of other religious groups. People will start thinking there is something in the teaching of Islam that encourages terrorism. After all, in today's world most terrorists seem to be Muslims.
M.S. Prasad
Avadi, India

Standoff in Iraq
Many with 20/20 hindsight blame George W. Bush for invading Iraq [Sept. 20]. Their hypocrisy is glaring, as an antiwar position can only mean Saddam Hussein and his two sadistic sons would still be in power. It is incredible that people can't see that if Saddam had not been removed, before long Iraq would have bankrolled terrorist organizations and suicide bombers to target Americans.
Frank Wenceslao
Norwalk, U.S.

All of us want to believe Bush's assertions that the world is safer without Saddam. Had weapons of mass destruction and records of support for terrorists been found in Iraq, it would be a lot easier to believe the President. But there's a good chance that the U.S. is less safe, not more. Other countries, like Iran, have seen us invade Iraq under false pretenses. Isn't it possible they could develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent to invasion? Some say voters shouldn't change horses in midstream, but maybe people should question whether the President who got us into such a mess is the person we should trust to lead us out.
Don Edwards
Oak Park, U.S.

Denouncing Islamic Terrorism
It is good that TIME highlighted the fact that there are moderate Muslims who denounce Islamic terrorism and strive for a more tolerant and open interpretation of Islam [Sept. 13]. Sadly, many of those Muslims learned their moderation from contact with the West; current Islamic culture by itself seems unable to produce such broad-mindedness on a large scale. That is not too surprising. In most Muslim countries, citizens are not exposed to the true teachings of other religions; indeed, they are often encouraged to despise others' beliefs, although ignorant of their actual meaning. Anyone who challenges such a policy, who takes another faith seriously, will probably suffer grave consequences. Until such attitudes change, the voice of Muslim moderates will always be curtailed, and Islam will continue to be a vehicle for uninformed hatred of the West.
Colin Sowden
Abergavenny, England

Shock and Indifference
I am a Nepalese woman living far away from home. Your article on the execution of 12 Nepalese workers in Iraq captured the horror we all felt when we heard the news [Sept. 13]. Too bad the rest of the world didn't seem to care. Considering that these young men were killed because the terrorists believed they were aiding Americans, it was disappointing not to see President Bush on TV publicly condemning the killings. I guess he was too busy cashing campaign checks. It really saddened me that so few cared about this tragic event. The Nepalese were working in war-ravaged Iraq so they could put food on the table for their families. If this had been a mass killing of 12 Americans, we would have heard about it for the next 12 months.
Manju Gurung
Hong Kong

The Dawning of a Legend
Our PEOPLE item [Sept. 20] referred to Lauren Bacall's 60-year career in the movies. It started with her role in To Have and Have Not with Humphrey Bogart. TIME's review of her performance in that film might have done a little bit to push her toward stardom [Oct. 23, 1944]:

"The most valuable fixture in the show is 20-year-old Lauren Bacall. [She] has cinema personality to burn, and she burns both ends against an unusually little middle. Her personality is compounded partly of percolated Davis, Garbo, West, Dietrich, Harlow and Glenda Farrell, but more than enough of it is completely new to the screen. She has a javelinlike vitality, a born dancer's eloquence in movement, a fierce female shrewdness and a special sweet-sourness. With these faculties, plus a stone-crushing self-confidence and a trombone voice, she manages to get across the toughest girl a piously regenerate Hollywood has dreamed of in a long, long while ... One of the most successful scenes in the picture is her own invention. After a highly charged few minutes with Bogart, late at night in a cheap hotel room, [Bacall's character] Marie retires to her own quarters. At this point in the shooting, Miss Bacall complained, 'God, I'm dumb ... If I had any sense, I'd go back in after that guy.' She did."