Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

London mayor says West fuelled Islamic radicalism
Reuters ^

Posted on 07/20/2005 6:41:38 AM PDT by Alex Marko

LONDON (Reuters) - Western foreign policy has fuelled the Islamist radicalism behind the bomb attacks which killed more than 50 people in London, the capital's mayor Ken Livingstone said on Wednesday.

Livingstone, who earned the nickname "Red Ken" for his left-wing views, won widespread praise for a defiant response which helped unite London after the bombings. But he has revived his reputation for courting controversy in recent days.

Asked on Wednesday what he thought had motivated the four suspected suicide bombers, Livingstone cited Western policy in the Middle East and early American backing for Osama bin Laden.

"A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in (U.S. detention camp) Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy," he said.

Police say they believe there is a clear link between bin Laden's al Qaeda network and the four British Muslims who blew up three underground trains and a double-decker bus on July 7.

"You've just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of a Western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones that we didn't consider sympathetic," Livingstone said.

"I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians to drive them out of Afghanistan.

"They didn't give any thought to the fact that once he'd done that, he might turn on his creators," he told BBC radio.

ANGER OVER IRAQ

Prime Minister Tony Blair's government has insisted the bombings have no link to its foreign policy, particularly its decision to invade Iraq alongside the United States.

But an opinion poll this week showed two-thirds of Britons see a connection between the Iraq war and the bombings. A top think tank and a leaked intelligence memo have also suggested the war has made the country more of a target for terrorists.

That did not stop the right-wing Daily Telegraph castigating Livingstone, a maverick member of the Labour party who was celebrating London's selection as host of the 2012 Olympics just hours before the bombers struck.

Wednesday's edition of the paper featured a picture of the mayor between photographs of two radical Muslim clerics under the headline: "The men who blame Britain".

Livingstone has made clear he condemns all killing, including suicide bombing. But is also a long-standing critic of Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.

"If you have been under foreign occupation, and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work, for three generations, I suspect if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves," he said on Wednesday.

Israel's ambassador to London Zvi Heifetz accused the mayor of expressing sympathy for Palestinian militants.

"It is outrageous that the same mayor who rightfully condemned the suicide bombing in London as ‘perverted faith', defends those who, under the same extremist banner, kill Israelis," he said in a statement.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bombing; islam; london; mayor; muslim; redken; sodoff; tosser; uk; wanker
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last
What a disgusting pig of a man he is.
1 posted on 07/20/2005 6:41:38 AM PDT by Alex Marko
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

Red Ken. If even the liberal UK can come up with this name...he must be a commie!


2 posted on 07/20/2005 6:42:56 AM PDT by RockinRight (Democrats - Trying to make an a$$ out of America since 1933)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

I knew all along it was Bush's fault. . .


3 posted on 07/20/2005 6:43:18 AM PDT by jtminton (Help stop second hand rap!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

And I suppose the west also caused Mulims to kill Bhuddists in Thailand and Indonesia? And it was the west that caused Muslims to kill Africans? And it was the west that caused Muslims to kill Hindus?

Every time Islam comes into contact with another society they kill. The problem is not with the west, it is with Islam.


4 posted on 07/20/2005 6:43:56 AM PDT by Jibaholic (The facts of life are conservative - Margaret Thatcher)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Comment #5 Removed by Moderator

To: Alex Marko

Well. That didn't take long. How do such people make it through the day, blinded by self-hatred as they so obviously are?


6 posted on 07/20/2005 6:44:12 AM PDT by RegulatorCountry (Esse Quam Videre)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

What a fricken idiot!


7 posted on 07/20/2005 6:44:22 AM PDT by dc-zoo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

Not surprising that this nutcase couldn't keep his pro-Islamist, anti-Western bias under control for long.


8 posted on 07/20/2005 6:46:07 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko
If you have been under foreign occupation, and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work, for three generations

There was a time not long ago when an imbecile like this, defending the barbaric slaughter of innocents, would be met by an angry mob outside his front door ready to tar and feather him.

9 posted on 07/20/2005 6:47:51 AM PDT by NoControllingLegalAuthority
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

You'd think this guy would have enough sense to keep his yap shut after 553 of his citizens were murdered. Brits can be a vengeful folk. Remember what they did to cromwell.


10 posted on 07/20/2005 6:51:33 AM PDT by Eagles6 (Dig deeper, more ammo.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dc-zoo

It sounds as if the shock's warn off a bit, and the good mayor has regrouped. His first reaction was disbelief that 'they'd' come after the 'little people'. (Presumably he didn't mean dwarves.) So he's back on the bash Bush/America bandwagon. God forbid he mention that big mosque on the corner with the mullah spewing hate and vans of industrial strength fertilizer being unloaded in the alley.


11 posted on 07/20/2005 6:51:47 AM PDT by hershey
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko
"A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in (U.S. detention camp) Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy," he said.

Uh, no, pinko. They are seeing a MSM made up version of what is happenning in Gitmo...

12 posted on 07/20/2005 6:54:06 AM PDT by LRS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

"Bend Over Ken"


13 posted on 07/20/2005 6:57:34 AM PDT by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dc-zoo
A liberal voted mayor of London, and a Liberal as PM in the UK. The Brits got a surprise when their Liberal PM supported and continues to support the US against terrorists. UK politics are confusing on this. I guess where national security is concerned, at least, Blair is NOT confused. But you need to keep in mind that the people who wanted that mayor are the same people who wanted Blair.
14 posted on 07/20/2005 7:01:31 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Stay together, pay the soldiers and forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dc-zoo

Well, he's doing his best to insure that London is hit again.

You know, the London he's supposed to want to protect.

Is his position ceremonial or is he really in charge of security, police etc?


15 posted on 07/20/2005 7:01:32 AM PDT by Let's Roll ( "Congressmen who ... undermine the military ... should be arrested, exiled or hanged" - A. Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dc-zoo
A liberal voted mayor of London, and a Liberal as PM in the UK. The Brits got a surprise when their Liberal PM supported and continues to support the US against terrorists. UK politics are confusing on this. I guess where national security is concerned, at least, Blair is NOT confused. But you need to keep in mind that the people who wanted that mayor are the same people who wanted Blair.
16 posted on 07/20/2005 7:02:24 AM PDT by SMARTY ("Stay together, pay the soldiers and forget everything else." Lucius Septimus Severus)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

The biggest killers of Muslims are other Muslims, not Westerners. Of course, the terrorists don't care about that. It's only a crime when non-Muslims kill Muslims.


17 posted on 07/20/2005 7:06:03 AM PDT by A Ruckus of Dogs
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko

"Western foreign policy has fuelled the Islamist radicalism "

- This coming from a stooge who has probably never read the koran. What a moron.


18 posted on 07/20/2005 7:13:53 AM PDT by Frenetic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jibaholic

"The problem is not with the west, it is with Islam."

Exactly.

And let's not forget 200+ of our Aussie friends killed on holiday in that Bali nightclub...


19 posted on 07/20/2005 7:16:08 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Alex Marko
>"If you have been under foreign occupation, and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work, for three generations, I suspect if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves," he said on Wednesday

Really?! When Britain
oppressed the colonials,
did Jefferson or

Franklin strap on bombs
and sail over to London
to blow up people?!

20 posted on 07/20/2005 7:20:37 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-65 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson