To the Editor:Bee front-page article [February 17] about the new Muslim community center/house of worship on Mt Pleasant Road by the hypocrisy of its Muslim leaders calling for tolerance of them and complaining about beliefs that Muslims are a potential terrorist threat. The leaders quoted never once denounced the Muslim extremists who have murdered thousands of Europeans and Americans - including some from Newtown and neighboring towns during the 9/11 attacks. Those atrocities, year after year, decade after decade, are precisely the reason that many people are naturally suspicious and concerned about Muslims and their intentions.Editor's note- The writer has sent the following correction:

I was struck in the recent

Simple question: Why haven't mainstream Muslims declared Jihad against the murderous Jihadis? And by Jihad, I don't mean the twisted, murderous form promoted by the extremists. As I understand it, Jihad is a call to action and concern, a rallying cry against threats to the core of the Muslim religion. It doesn't have to involve murder; it can simply be a cry to moderate, mainstream Muslims to speak out forcefully and take other actions against the hijacking of their religion by extremists.

I also wonder why mainstream Muslims have not infiltrated ISIS, Al Qaeda, and other extremist organizations and helped bring them down? Is it because they are cowards, or do they secretly agree that infidels can be persecuted and murdered and their houses of worship burned down? Consider this: in Muslim nations in the Mideast, Jews (if there are any left), Christians, Yazidis, and other members of minority religions are routinely persecuted and murdered. In late February, there were news reports that Coptic Christians in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula are fleeing after yet more ISIS and Muslim threats and atrocities against them. And one of the first things that European nations noticed after the influx of Muslim refugees is the refugees' assaults on Jews and attacks on their synagogues.

One of the great virtues of America is that we separate church and state and enable all peoples to freely practice their religion, as long as it does not involve sanctioned murder and persecution of others of different faiths. I will be glad to visit the Mt Pleasant Muslim community center, but I would first be interested in hearing from the Mt Pleasant leaders their views on Islamic extremists. What are they doing to fight the extremists, and even more importantly, do they believe that Jews, Christians, and other "infidels" (or Muslims who leave the faith) can and should be persecuted, whether here or in Muslim-majority nations? Indeed, in a recent CNN report, Muslim journalist Fareed Zakaria reported that 68 percent of Egyptians believe that those who leave the Muslim religion should be executed, but he waved it off as "just talk." Really?

Dale N. Walter

19 Fairchild Drive, Newtown         March 6, 2017

In a prior March 3 letter to the editor ["Blood On Their Hands"], I mistakenly referred to former Connecticut Senator Lieberman rather than current Senator Blumenthal regarding a mother who felt the two current Connecticut US Senators had failed to take any preventative actions after her daughter was stabbed to death by an illegal alien who had evaded deportation. I regret the error.