Decius wrote:
I really hope this study was flawed. There needs to be more. The actual POV of that community needs to be directly discussed. I would like to see surveys like this done in the US as well.
I seriously doubt if the survey is flawed and Anthony King is very highly respected in this country. Many British Muslims are extremely radical. The situation is not unlike Catholics in Northern Ireland being nationalist without supporting the violence of the IRA. The percentage of IRA members at any one time was a very small percentage of the population but don't forget it doesn't take many people to form an Active Service Unit after all the 9/11 attacks were conducted by 19 people, the London bombs by 4.
Muslims in this country have grown up in, what is to them, a rascist culture and for many the British government's support for the war in Iraq was the final straw. Their political home for a generation has been the Labour party. They feel politically disenfranchised by the political mainstream (note the rise of Respect, an anti war political party and with predominantly Muslim support but it is marginal as a political party and acts more as a within the system pressure relief valve).
The article expresses the view that many in the Muslim community feel that anybody brought to trial wouldn't receive a fair trial. The question arises whether this is systematic of a failure of the British system to assimilate the community or perhaps in view of what happened to the Guildford 4 and the Birmingham 6, who were falsely convicted under not entirely dissimilar circumstances, a not unreasonable point of view. Or even perhaps both positions are in fact accurate.
The bombings in London didn't surprise me in the least merely the timing, I expected it during the elections. Although many Muslims are I believe just as radical as the survey suggests they are not yet as organised as the IRA nor did they appear, until recently, to have the military know how. Whether the know how is home grown or imported is obviously a key question for the police and the security services.
With the bombs that didn't go off forensics will have a field day and if they can catch the bombmaker then maybe they can stop this Active Service Unit in its tracks. Let's hope because I genuinely expect like the war between British forces and the IRA a long campaigne.
