Silly Little Country

Islam and Innocence

I wrote a summary shortly after my return from the UK of what I had observed in the media after the first bombings in July. That summary included this speculative, and annoyed, paragraph.

The standard story was "Islam does not sanction the killing of innocents". What was interesting was that nobody in the media followed up on these formulaic comments by asking how the Islam in question defined innocence. I am pretty sure the murderers did not regard even the Muslims around them, co-operating in the social world that had humiliated the Caliphate, as innocents.

I am pleased to report that somebody in the media has in fact done this exploration quite nicely. Hat tip to Jeff Jarvis for pointing me to this chilling story in the Times.

A key citation from Omar Bakri Mohammed (who lives on state benefits in the UK):

This is not, of course, something that they would say in public. When Bakri finally commented publicly on the bomb attacks, he condemned the deaths of “innocents”. But this was not quite the remorse it seemed.

At Friday prayers, on the day after the second bomb attacks, there was a buzz in the air as Bakri walked into the Selby hall in his brilliant white shalwar kameez. In the preamble to the sermon he referred to the bombers as the “fantastic four”. He explained that his lament for the “innocent” applied only to Muslims. It was a linguistic sleight of hand which he summarised as: “Yes I condemn killing any innocent people, but not any kuffar.”

Other citations indicate my further point, that there are brands of Islam that also regard 'moderate' Muslins as being little more innocent than infidels.

None of this should be any surprise to anyone who has been paying attention for the last many years and is aware of some of what the Koran and hadith recommend regarding spreading the faith. I hope there continues to be useful investigative reporting of this form.

There are some encouraging points in the article; it is enjoyable to sense the frustration at the amount of exposure Bakri will get from this, given the frustation described in the article over the speed of existing British investigative work.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 4:21 PM