The ulema of the al-Azhar university, the highest seat of Sunni Muslim learning, have renewed their criticism of suicide bombers, this time underlining how many confuse "suicide" with "martyrdom" in defence of ones faith of country. In Islam, they explained, those who commit suicide are condemned to hell. In this case they are not considered "true Muslims" even if they are pushed to this dramatic gesture by religious motivations. In the pan-Arab daily al-Sharq al-Awsat, Mohammed Rafit Othman, a scholar at al-Azhar explained that there is a "difference between jihad and terrorism" and also "between martyrdom and suicide". He admitted that there was considerable confusion in this point. In fact a suicide bomber commits a mortal crime in that his presumed 'martyrdom' leads to the death "of others", for reasons which are purely political and not religious.