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Ferre
Cannabis Sacrament Minister.
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 Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2005 10:16 am Post subject: London Free Press: Western aggression fuels fanaticism. |
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Western aggression fuels fanaticism.
Britain and the U.S. are paying for 80 years of Mideast meddling in pursuit of oil, London's mayor says.
ERIC MARGOLIS, Sun Media Newspapers. 2005-07-24 03:04:08
Having witnessed the first London transit bombing on July 7, this week's fizzled bombings, exactly two weeks later, brought both nasty deja vu and deep relief that the attacks only disrupted transit and badly frayed nerves.
Thursday's incidents intensified the fierce war of words that has raged in Britain for the past two weeks over who was to blame for the original attacks.
Canadians should pay close attention because their latest dispatch of troops to Afghanistan, accompanied by adolescent tough talk, makes them a potential target for attack.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair keeps insisting the young British-Pakistani men who staged the July 7 bombings were motivated by a rabid, misguided view of Islam, and incited by fanatical imams preaching a cult of hatred against the West.
U.S. President George Bush and Australia's Prime Minister John Howard repeat a similar litany: Terrorism is caused by evil Muslims who hate the West because of its values, religion, freedoms and selfless efforts to bring the light of democracy and civilization to the benighted Islamic world.
They insist attacks by Muslims have nothing whatsoever to do with the West's military actions in the Muslim world, its efforts to control or plunder oil, or the corrupt, despotic regimes installed there by the U.S., Britain and France. It's all the fault of run-amok Islam and hate-mongers.
British investigators believe the 7/7 attackers may have had links to radical Islamic groups in Pakistan, which is increasingly portrayed as the fount of Islamic terrorism. Pakistan's madrassas (religious schools) again came under heavy criticism for churning out young fanatics.
Embarrassed by Britain's angry charges, Pakistan's military ruler, President Pervez Musharraf, ordered his security services to round up the usual Islamic suspects. A "key al-Qaida terrorist" was suddenly arrested, Islamabad's standard response whenever Washington and London turn up the heat.
Two weeks ago, from London, I wrote that the underground bombings were the despicable but inevitable retaliation of angry young Muslims for Britain's invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Unsurprisingly, I received a good deal of flak.
Still, an embarrassing leaked report from MI-5, Britain's security service, and a study by Chatham House, a leading U.K. non-partisan research group, confirmed links between the attacks, Afghanistan and Iraq. Polls show a majority of Brits agreed.
London's popular mayor, Ken Livingstone, spoke for this silent majority, blaming "80 years of western intervention in Arab land because of our need for oil."
The always-controversial Livingstone went on to accuse the U.S. and Britain of a double standard over terrorism.
Though Livingstone is way to the left of most Britons, his words, echoing those of rogue MP George Galloway, reflect what many Britons think, but Americans dare not say: U.S. political policies and wars in the Mideast were responsible for 9/11 and other terrorist attacks.
By playing Bush's Sancho Panza in the so-called war on terrorism -- seen by most Muslims as a western crusade against Islam -- Blair imported Mideast violence to Britain.
Blaming Islamist fanaticism allows Bush and Blair to decouple their aggressive policies in the Muslim world from counter-attacks by small groups of terrorists. Israel initiated this policy of denial, long insisting its repressive policies in the occupied territories had nothing to do with Arab terrorist attacks.
But anyone who claims you can bomb and occupy other people's nations and not get return fire is being either incredibly naive or untruthful.
Murdering civilians in London, New York or Tel Aviv is a heinous crime. So was, to Muslims around the globe, the trumped-up invasion of Iraq that violated every norm of international law. So, too, is the ongoing U.S. occupation of Afghanistan and the agony of Palestine.
Deporting or jailing loudmouth Muslim radical clerics, closing madrassas, or simply blaming Islam will not stop the dangerous jihadist movement. Terrorist violence is the effect, not the cause. The real solution to this growing violence is changing western policies in the Muslim world.
London Free Press
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aeroplane
Cannabis Sacrament Minister
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 1472
Location: Valhalla
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2005 12:20 am Post subject: |
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British Prime Minister Tony Blair keeps insisting the young British-Pakistani men who staged the July 7 bombings were motivated by a rabid, misguided view of Islam, and incited by fanatical imams preaching a cult of hatred against the West.
U.S. President George Bush and Australia's Prime Minister John Howard repeat a similar litany: Terrorism is caused by evil Muslims who hate the West because of its values, religion, freedoms and selfless efforts to bring the light of democracy and civilization to the benighted Islamic world.
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Just by using the words "Islam", "evil" or "Muslims" in reference to these violent human-made tragedies is an attempt to provoke friction between ideologies. It's no mystery, when you stifle a population to the point that they have no voice, violence is what you'll get in return. Remove the dagger that you stuck into their side before you ask for peace.
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