"When one person carries out an attack we call him a terrorist or a retard or a psychopath. When two people carry out an attack we say they are both terrorists and lunatics. But when ten people carry out an attack we [start] wondering about their motives. So when hundreds of members of the same religion [carry out] bombings all over the place -- in mosques, markets, hotels, [public] gathering places, planes, and [subway] tunnels -- and are later identified as Muslims, we have no choice but to admit that this is Islamic terrorism.

"Some are angered by the equation drawn between Islam and terrorism, and argue that Islam is a religion of love. This is true of the real Islam, but today's Islam is infected with the virus of zealotry, extremism, and terrorism -- not just [the Islam] of the terrorists and murderers, but [the Islam] of those who sympathize with them and support them. We must admit that Islamic terrorism exists, and that the faith needs to be purged of the ideology of exclusion and takfir. Denying this reality will not bring change, but pitch us into total ruin.

"I will not [try to] anticipate the findings of the investigation of the Boston attack, because there are sufficient [examples]. Not long before the Boston attack, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in Pakistan, murdering dozens of worshipers, including children. Another blew himself up in Iraq, causing similar devastation. Tomorrow will bring with it more of this Islamic terrorism, since Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Syria [also] have Islamic suicide bombers who act out of extremist ideological inclinations... All this is done in the name of Islam by religious Muslims who believe they are close to Paradise and want to shorten their path there.

"Considering the ease with which young boys and girls are recruited to put on suicide vests and sacrifice themselves, [do we need] to ask why? Will we [not] find the answer in the sermons and religious curricula in Southeast Asian countries, or in the words of sheikhs who encourage strife in the media or on TV channels that purport to support peace?

"The important question is, when will Islam recover from the virus of terrorism?"