IN his thought-provoking column `Defining jihadists` ( March 2), Owen Bennett-Jones (March 2) has summed up the debate in the West, especially the US, about defining jihadists.

Fundamentally, the question is, are they bad Muslims, non-Muslims or perfectly valid Muslims with a fringe point of view? President Obama, while in office, said that jihadists couldn`t be considered Muslims; they were barbarians and murderers.

However, many of the current aides of President Trump and he himself tend to think these people are valid Muslims who believe in the use of violence to further their goals. Indeed, Steve Bannon, Trump`s most trusted adviser and chief strategist, spoke in 2014 of a coming clash betweenChristianity and Islam: `We are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic f ascism,` he said.

There`s a world of difference between what Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) preached and practised and what the jihadists are doing.

Essentially, he had the two highest attributes conceivable: justice and mercy.

The jihadists are devoid of these. Recently, the remains of a German man were found in the Philippines who was beheaded last week by the Abu Sayyaf group because the deadline of their demand for $600,000 ransom had passed (March 6). I was truly saddened to read this.

The phenomenal PSL cricket final in Pakistan on March 5 featuring foreign and Pakistani players in a packed stadium, watched by 150m f ans worldwide, proves there`s no civilisational clash brewing in our minds.

Name withheld on request Karachi (2) THIS refers to article `Defining jihadists` (March 2) by Owen Bennett-Jones. The writer says in the concluding paragraph `In his remarks to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington last week, Donald Trump said this: `So let me state this as clearly as I can. We are going to keep radical Islamic terrorists ...

out of our country`.

So, while keeping `radical Islamic terrorists` out of the country, he would keep in the US the `radical Christian terrorists`, the likes of born-again Christian George Bush and the man himself who had initially claimed that `God wanted him to invade Iraq and had described the massacre as a crusade`.

Despite all his f aults, including ruthlessness towards those who opposed his rule, Saddam Hussein had managed to keep disruptive elements under check and had given the vast majority of Iraqis a f air degree of peace, progress and prosperity.

Saddam`s sudden removal without providing any suitable alternative and US involvement in Libya and Syria, unleashed monsters in the region which Trump and his likes describe as `radical Islamic terrorists` and are sermonising against.

Riazul Hakeem Karachi