Clerics 'must denounce terrorists'

General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, yesterday urged Mu-slim scholars to denounce terrorists as infidels.

Shaikh Mohammad was in Amman to show solidarity with Jordan after the recent terrorist suicide bombings.

"There should be a firm stand adopted by Islamic clerics and scholars against this terrorism," Shaikh Mohammad told Al Arabiya television.

"If they do not declare them infidels, the least they can do is drive them out of the faith. If there is no sincere stand against such irreligious and inhumane acts, they will flourish," Shaikh Mohammad said.

He said: "Terrorism came to us in the name of Islam, so there is no point trying to throw it into other direction. We should be the ones who confront and resist it." Shaikh Mohammad queried as to "what reason or logic that justifies killing children, women or an elderly person [gathered] for a celebration?"

"The terrorist acts that took place in Jordan also harmed us in the UAE, as if they happened there," Shaikh Mohammad said.