Dalai Lama says its time for the world to address the root causes of terrorism

The Associated Press

Published: June 1, 2008

NEW DELHI : The Dalai Lama said Sunday that the international community needs to deal with the root causes of terrorism and it was wrong to brand all Muslims as militants.

"Every action comes from some motivation. We have to address or deal with the motivation which creates terrorist actions," the Tibetan spiritual leader said at a terrorism conference in New Delhi. He didn't elaborate.

The Dalai Lama referred to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States, but said it was wrong to generalize and blame Islam for acts by some members of the Muslim community.

The Dalai Lama said he was dismayed by the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland and Shias and Sunni Muslims in Iraq and  Pakistan.

The conference was organized by the Jama Masjid United Forum, a Muslim organization.

Syed Yahya Bukhari, president of the Jama Masjid United Forum, said the targets of terrorism continued to expand and shift to new locations, and the tools and methods were getting increasingly sophisticated, innovative and destructive.

India's Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said he agreed with the Dalai Lama's statement and said the world must move forward in resolving the decades-old conflicts that serve as the breeding ground for terrorists.

Sibal also called for use of technology to check the spread of terrorism.

"We have enormous technology tools which can now help us to trace the financing of terrorism and spread of arms and connectivity among terrorist groups," he said.