So much for help from the British Muslim community. Their supposed leadership has essentially told us to surrender if we want the bombs to stop:
“7/7, 21/7, and God knows what will happen afterwards, our lives are in real danger and it would seem, so long as we are in Iraq and so long as we are contributing to injustices around the world, we will continue to be in real danger.”
It was “contributing to injustices around the world” to remove a brutal dictator who murdered Muslims by the villageload?
“Tony Blair has to come out of his state of denial and listen to what the experts have been saying, that our involvement in Iraq is stupid.” His comments were echoed by the marketing manager for The Muslim Weekly newspaper.
Shahid Butt said he believed the threat to Britain would reduce if it pulled its troops out of Iraq. He said: “At the end of the day, these things [violent incidents] are going to happen if current British foreign policy continues. There’s a lot of rage, there’s a lot of anger in the Muslim community.
“Yes,” said Mr. Hitler, “those German bombers are going to continue to happen. There’s a lot of rage, a lot of anger in Germany. You need to change your foreign policy, and stop supporting efforts to overthrow the legitimate Petain regime in Paris.”
“We have got to get out of Iraq, it is the crux of the matter. I believe if Tony Blair and George Bush left Iraq and stopped propping up dictatorial regimes in the Muslim world, the threat rate to Britain would come down to nearly zero.”
You mean dictatorial regimes like the one in Afghanistan, one of the few democracies in the Muslim world, that became that way only because of British and American arms? Or the new democratic government in Iraq (again a result of British and American “foreign policy”), one that is being undermined by people who apparently love killing Muslims, for whom this man is making apologies and excuses?
Which specific “dictatorial regimes does he have in mind”? Egypt? Saudi Arabia? I’m all ears as to any suggestions he has to reform those places.
But sorry. John Howard had it exactly right. I’d suggest you listen to what he has to say, Dr. Tamimi.
[Update at 1 PM PDT]
It strikes me that this is classic good cop/bad cop, with Dr. Tanimi and his confederates playing good cop, and the thugs being the bad one. “You know, maybe you should listen to us and do what we say, wouldn’t want that other guy to get a hold of you–no telling what he might do.”
[Update at 1:55 PM PDT]
Here’s another one:
Speaking 15 days after bombers killed over 50 people in London and a day after a series of failed attacks on the city’s transport network, Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed said the British capital should expect more violence.
“What happened yesterday confirmed that as long as the cause and the root problem is still there … we will see the same effect we saw on July 7,” Bakri said.
“If the cause is still there the effect will happen again and again,” he said, adding he had no information about future attacks or contacts with people planning to carry out attacks.
Yeah, I’ll bet he has no information…
[One more update]
It occurred to me when discussing this on the phone with someone just now that of the three Anglosphere leaders, Bush is a straight (albeit occasionally stumbling over words) talker, Blair is eloquent and articulate (albeit slippery, which really stands out when he appears next to someone like John Howard), but what’s great about John Howard is that he combines these traits–eloquent, articulate, and straightforward. I occasionally wish that we could trade leaders with folks Down Under.