Letters: THERE'S MORE TO THE MOSQUE BURIAL STORY

THE VIEWS expressed in the article

"Mosque: We Will Not Bury This Muslim"

are of those who were interviewed but don't necessarily reflect the Holy Koran or the Philadelphia Muslim community.

Howard Cain professed to be Muslim, and his body must be washed, shrouded and prayed over. His criminal act does not represent the love and peace the Muslim community desires. But Cain will be punished, possibly in the grave and in the hereafter, for what he did.

Khadijah Asley-Shah

A Philadelphia Muslim Sister

It angers me that another police officer is killed in the line of duty and politicians put their attention on guns. There is always a person behind the gun who decides to pull the trigger and no matter what gun laws are in play, a person with criminal intent will always be able to obtain a gun.

The murder of Sgt. Liczbinski was committed by three career criminals, and their decision to shoot was not the fault of the weapon or its manufacturer. More focus should be put on proper punishment for those who kill people with guns than on the gun itself. I suggest an automatic death sentence with no appeal.

John Witherup, Philadelphia

The death of police Sgt. Liczbinski brings to light just how lax our liberal politicians are. They continue to focus on toughening up gun laws and making assault weapons illegal, as they should be. But at what point does a career criminal, when choosing a weapon to commit a crime, decide to use a weapon that is legal or illegal?

So our liberal state and city governments need to stop making empty threats of prosecuting criminals to fullest extent of the law, because it never happens. Convicted criminals are never are put to death in Pennsylvania. The last execution was in 1999.

Since then, Texas has executed over 225 of their death row inmates, a number that would've cleaned out our death row. Just as our liberal neighbor, Gov. Corzine, has given criminals the okay to do whatever they want without fearing for their lives, our government in Pennsylvania has allowed 222 condemned inmates sit on death row, some for as long as 20 years, sucking up taxpayer money.

Execute them and be done with them. Most important, we need to put the fear back into the criminal's mind and make the threats of full prosecution real. The families of the fallen should be able to file wrongful death lawsuits against the city and state for not acting to fullest extent of the law.

Dennis Ferguson, Philadelphia

Vest wouldn't have helped

Letter-writer Robert Schaffer stated that if Officer Liczbinski had been wearing a bulletproof vest, he'd be alive today.

But a bulletproof vest is of no help when a shooter uses an assault-type weapon. If the bullet pierced the vehicle door, what makes you think a vest would stop it?

I can't, for the life of me, understand why the NRA opposes a ban on these assault weapons. Doesn't the "R" stand for rifle?

Peggy Reid

Cheltenham