"Islam means peace and love. Nobody has the right to use our religion as an epithet for terror," Erdogan (AFP)

ISTANBUL, November 26 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly rejected Tuesday, November 25, any "Islamic" brand for terrorism following the four deadly suicide bombings that rocked Istanbul last week.

"Islam means peace and love. Nobody has the right to use our religion as an epithet for terror... It is not possible for us, the Muslim children of this nation, to put up with this," Erdogan said to the applause of members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Istanbul, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"Aren't there terrorists among Muslims? Of course, there are. There are terrorists hailing from every society. They can come from among Jews, they can come from among Christians. Are we then supposed to start judging those religions and cast clouds on them?

"Terrorism has no religion, race and nationality. Terrorism is damned. Wherever it is, we will stand against it and we will smash its head," he said.

At least 53 people were killed in two sets of double suicide bombings in Istanbul -- at two synagogues on November 15 and the British consulate and the British-owned HSBC bank five days later.

A local extremist group, the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front (IBDA-C), and the Al-Qaeda network claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Meanwhile, the Turkish daily Yeni Safak, the mouthpiece of the AKP, accused on Tuesday, November 25, the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, of "having a link" with the latest string of car deaths in Istanbul.

The daily blamed a Mossad-recruited terror network, called Al-Takfier, for the deadly bombings.

Criticizing Britain

Erdogan has further criticized Britain for publicizing warnings over possible renewed attacks in the country, saying they should have been shared only with Turkish intelligence services.

"If we are going to form a common platform of struggle against international terrorism ... then such intelligence should not be given over to the media but to the concerned country," Erdogan told reporters late Tuesday.

The British Foreign Office said in a new advisory Tuesday that "further attacks may be imminent" in Istanbul and Ankara, strengthening its warning against all non-essential travel to Turkey.