Posted on 07/11/2005 4:25:05 PM PDT by milestogo
EDITORIAL: Backlash against expatriate Muslims?
Four mosques in the UK have been hit by vandals after the July 7 acts of terrorism in London. Similar attacks have been directed against the Muslim community in New Zealand. The London police have arrested three suspects “unconnected with the underground bombings” from Heathrow Airport under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, while one Pakistani allegedly carrying a map of the London underground was arrested from another airport outside London. The police reported incidents of abusive language used against Muslims in the streets and Pakistani MPs from the Labour Party have expressed fears about a rise in hate crimes in the UK in the aftermath of the July 7 acts of terrorism.
The Muslims in the UK are rightly worried about their future in the country. The British press has trawled the reports prepared after the 2004 Al Qaeda bombing in Spain to report that Al Qaeda was busy recruiting Muslim youth from British colleges, focusing on engineers and science students alienated by the “double standards” in the Islam-related foreign policies of the West in general and the United States in particular. The target community are arrivals from Africa and the Middle East as well as the second-generation naturalised Britons whose ancestors had arrived from Pakistan. All over the world, airports may have been alerted to passengers having Muslim names and it might become difficult for non-expatriate Pakistanis to travel outside Pakistan.
This is not a satisfactory state of affairs. The July 7 attacks in the UK have been roundly condemned by the governments of the Islamic world, including Pakistan. Implicit in this condemnation is the fear that their nationals might face unfair persecution in the West. Will the governments in the West keep this fact in mind while investigating the 7/7 incident and while mounting preventive measures against a repetition of the acts that Al Qaeda keeps threatening? The British government has already held out assurances that it will not target any community but will “keep all options open” while trying to locate the terrorists behind the 7/7 mischief. The Muslim community in the UK is expecting the worst. TV images of Muslims (they looked like conservative Pakistanis from their dress and beards) shown on the BBC in the aftermath of 7/7 were quite unsettling. They looked worried and no doubt expected reprisals any moment.
Is there more to be done to prevent the backlash against our expatriate community abroad? Islamabad has made the right statements and there is no doubt that every word in them was meant. But did all the political parties issue such “calming” statements? One columnist in Daily Times has noted that most of the parties have either not clearly condemned the 7/7 act or have hedged their condemnations with qualifiers that may not help Pakistanis living in the UK. The religious parties are either in denial about it or have expatiated on the possibility of “someone other than the Muslims” having done it. The “oracle of Sindh”, Pir Pagaro, has actually announced that the bombings were possibly staged to trap the Muslims. TV programmes have shown discussions repeating the old line that the West must pay for the policies it has pursued towards the Muslims, who are described as “mazloom” (persecuted) and otherwise much put upon.
There are nearly two million Muslims in the UK, nearly four million in Germany and five million in France. After what has happened since 9/11, these countries and their neighbours have betrayed signs of popular support to politicians who think that stern action should be taken against the expatriate Muslims and their radical religious culture. The UK has passed the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which makes arrest and detention of suspects legal, and other European states are thinking of laws on the same lines. In these circumstances, and given the fact that an outrageous act has been committed on 7/7, what should the Muslims in their homelands do to lessen the danger to which their expatriate brethren are exposed? One must accept the fact that here in Pakistan no one has accepted the “facts” revealed by the judicial process about the functioning of the mosques in the West, and most discussants on TV and the press have continued to rely on the old rhetoric of “double standards” to avoid feeling morally responsible for Al Qaeda terrorism.
It is time to change tack while talking about the Islamists and their hardline stance in the West. The three mosques in Paris that have served as the watering hole of the “sleeper cells” of Al Qaeda, the Al Quds mosque in Hamburg from where the dreaded 19 of Al Qaeda flew out to the US for the 9/11 bombings, and the infamous Finnsbury mosque in London from where Al Masari loosed his Al Qaeda rhetoric on scared Britons, should be accepted as samples of extremism that have crept into our expatriate community. Indeed, the truth is that expatriate Pakistanis have become more radicalised and extreme in their religious views than their brethren in Pakistan. The activities and rhetoric of the London-based Hizb al Tahrir in Pakistan will bear this out. At the present juncture, all efforts must be made to help the Western states, including the US, avoid choosing a radically anti-Muslim option through their electoral process. It is no longer wise to adhere to the old “double standards” line. Our communities living in the West are at risk and they can be secured against persecution only if we carefully select the messages we send out to the West through the media.
One last point. Muslims must acknowledge the resilience and democratic strength of the Western societies under attack by extremists and help strengthen these rather than weaken them. Londoners, it must be admitted, have shown tremendous calm and wisdom in the face of adversity by not succumbing to racism and anger against the Muslims in the city, as have Britons in the UK in general. That is the hallmark of a great, open, multi-racial and multi-cultural society. *
Also covered by channel 12 in Boise.
I'm afraid it was. A plant was kicked over as well.
This is just sick beyond any reckoning. I am stuned.
Eeeeek! Quel terrible!
and Pakistani MPs from the Labour Party have expressed fears about a rise in hate crimes in the UK in the aftermath of the July 7 acts of terrorism.
I wonder if the Pakistani MPs from the Labour Party are as concerned about the 50+ dead and the hundreds of Britons maimed by the filthy cowards who share this gutter religion?
The plant wasn't hurt was it??
(Fingers crosssed hoping for the best!!)
As much as I hate to be the bearer of ill tidings
and considering the plant wasn't doing too well to
begin with... are you seated?... the plant is dead.
I'm sorry.
Efforts were made but it was simply too late.
Send me twelve dollars and I'll arrange to have it replanted.
I'll kick in a new pot for nothing, the Dollar Store had a sale.
Thanks for breaking the news gently.
Sniff....................
Well, they should be worried because at some point, the planes are going to taxi up and people are going to be loaded onto them and headed back home. Second, third generation, it's not going to matter. Either the Muslim countries get this under control, or they are going to find the doors slammed in their faces.
Yeah, whatever.
I'll have my twelve bucks now.
Pakistanis burn churches and kill Christians and Hindus at the drop of a hat. Maybe they should consider their own conduct.
I doubt this will happen, though it should. The people are busy saying, "F*** you, I'm going to the pub!" instead of loading the planes of mass deportation. A bomb can easily be walked into any pub.
Multi-culturalism over unity; PC over common sense. To think that any person would emigrate from some third-world hell-hole and get themselves set up nicely on public assistance so they don't have to work or contribute, but then preach/recruit/plan that host country's demise is mind-boggling.
It's one thing to cower, yet another to say you're not scared. It's something altogether different to cut out the cancer.
very articulate assessment!
For whatever reasons, the British, French and German governments fail to recognize the Trojan Horse that has become ensconced in their countries. Europe is in real danger of being taken by Islam, not necessarily by force, although its adherents are obviously prepared and adept at employing murder and mayhem in this effort.
There should be no doubt among Western countries that Islam seeks world dominion and submission. Islam intends to take over all, and convert us or kill us. This is a situation in whihc political correctness will be our demise, and Europe will be merely the starting point. We are in a war to the death - either we win it, or our way of life will perish. Let there be no doubt on that - the muslims have said as much.
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