We are not traitors in your midst

It was easy to remain aloof from political debate, but during the 1990s it became clear that a series of political causes abroad were animating young British Muslims. Although it rarely gets mentioned nowadays, Bosnia marked one such turning point.

If the trouble in Bosnia "animated young British Muslims", why were they not "animated" to support the West when the West went to Bosnia in support of the Muslims there?

The radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir had also emerged on the campuses, and its confident tabloid style of politics appealed to some impressionable young Muslims. While at university, and involved with my local Islamic society, I experienced many run-ins with them. At our college we managed to keep them to the margins, but it was difficult and I was accused of being a turncoat and a spy.

OK. So he admits that he knew that radicals were infiltrating his religion. What did he do to reeducate the radicals and bring them back to "true" islam?

Recoiling from this angry Marxist-Leninist Islam, I spent a number of years away from the community, disillusioned and unsure.

And, finally, it is admitted that the radicals are really Commies dressed up in a religious veneer.

During research fieldwork for a doctorate just before 9/11, it was clear to me that radicalism had become embedded in a section of the Muslim community.

And you reported these radicals to whom?

But it took the attack on the Twin Towers for me to realise that these people were more than just the Muslim Militant Tendency.

And, again, to whom did you report the presence of these radicals?

In these past five years the Muslim community has struggled to cope with the pressure. It is the youngest community in the country, half of it under the age of 25 — with all the energy, enthusiasm and inexperience that one might expect — and it’s one of the poorest and most socially marginalised.

What does being poor and socially marginalized have to do with anything? Need I remind you that you just said "The radical Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir had also emerged on the campuses"? Are these college-educated radicals still unable to find jobs and/or fit into society?

Even if fatwas of peace from the great and learned of the Muslim world are circulated, as they have been, it won’t matter much to puritanical extremists who do not recognise the traditional religious authorities.

And this seems to indicate that he believes these "muslims" aren't really "muslims" at all. If they don't respect the authority of their religion, why do "real muslims" protect them? Again he has already said "While at university, and involved with my local Islamic society, I experienced many run-ins with them. At our college we managed to keep them to the margins, but it was difficult and I was accused of being a turncoat and a spy." He didn't say he had turned them in, but that he was accused of being a spy. What was his reaction when he found these radicals in the midst of his religion? "[W]e managed to keep them to the margins". That is, they ignored them.

Converts who don’t fit the stereotypical profile are attractive targets for extremist recruiters, as we have seen in the cases of Richard Reid and Jermaine Lindsay.

And, finally, the old "since everyone doesn't fit the profile, then don't use the profile" argument. Never mind that I can only think of two examples of radicals that were not young middle-eastern males between the ages of 18 and 40 and the police rounded up at least 20 last weekend.

I will believe muslims are interested in cleaning up this mess when they start turning these radicals over to the authorities. Until then the safest course is to assume that any muslim is a radical.

"Can you imagine a bunch of Norwegian Lutherans setting up shop in Saudi Arabia ?"

All I can say is Uff-da!

New tagline...

"I have never been able to understand why in the world someone would move to a country they hate, populated by people they hate, and raise their children in a culture they hate."
Because it has never dawned on them that all the goodies are here because the culture they hate is capable of building them - they want the goodies but can't admit that the societies they want to substitute cannot maintain them or create new ones.

"It would be like me moving to France."
Only if you count the cheese as being a significant factor.

Cheers !

(If I had to come up with a phrase to describe why I think anyone would want to blow up those planes, it would be ‘perverted idealism’. According to this type of thinking, Muslim lives are held cheaply and are undefended. To protect Muslims, we must resort to acts of terror, the weapon of the weak. We will stand up and be counted as heroes.)

It doesn't sound like he thinks that's bad...