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July 13, 2005
When Ordinary Muslims Resort To Extreme Measures
Peter Wilson of The Australian captured what the West will face as more Muslims who would not ordinarily resort to extreme measures to make a political point do so in response to Britain and the United States' war in Iraq. A war that has caused the deaths of thousands of Muslims since the March 20, 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation that spawned a resistance that has killed Western occupiers and their collaborators and anyone else in the way. A war in which the U.S. does not do body counts of Iraqis killed.
In his July 14, 2005 article, Mr Wilson profiles Shehzad Tanweer, "the man that Britain hoped would never exist;" a man who resorted to extreme measures to make a political point.
"For the past week," he wrote, "security officials and the public have desperately wanted to find that the killers behind the [July 7, 2005] London bombings were foreigners, an imported malignancy that could eventually be rejected by the nation's immune system."
"But yesterday," he added, "in the grimy back streets of Leeds, they found that 22-year-old Tanweer was the man who blew up a train near Aldgate station while three of his friends set off other bombs.
Tanweer was no foreigner. He loved cricket. His hard-working family runs a fish and chip shop. He was born and raised in England. He lived just a kilometre from the Elland Road ground of his football team, Leeds United.
"He was as English as any young Muslim of Pakistani descent could possibly be. And worst of all, he managed to maintain the veneer of a moderate and reasonably devout British Muslim."
I can see someone eventually writing something similar about an American-born Muslim taking a similar action in response to U.S. policies in Iraq. It happened in England and it can happen in the U.S.
See "Anyone could be a terrorist" for more of Mr. Wilson's article.to
Posted by Munir Umrani at July 13, 2005 09:11 PM
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