Muslim leaders say foreign policy makes UK target

[spindrifter]

Will Woodward and Stephen Bates
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian


Leading UK Muslims have united to tell Tony Blair that his foreign policy in Iraq and on Israel offers "ammunition to extremists" and puts British lives "at increased risk".

An open letter signed by three of the four Muslim MPs, three of the four peers, and 38 organisations including the Muslim Council of Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, was greeted with dismay in Downing Street. It has courted the MCB and several of the signatories, such as key Labour MPs Sadiq Khan (Tooting) and Shahid Malik (Dewsbury), whom it believes can shape Muslim opinion.

<snip>

"The debacle of Iraq and the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.

"Attacking civilians is never justified. This message is a global one. We urge the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion. Such a move would make us all safer."

<more>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1843114,00.html

[msongs]

1. islam is the state and the state is islam nt

[sweetheart]

2. let people speak for themselves

why do muslims need people to speak for them? Isn't that itself a patriarchal ruse to
disenfranchise and not engage the actual voices of real people. This getting chummy
with people through religious leaders is just a bit claustophobic... really, so base indeed.

[breakaleg]

3. CNN's Christian Amanpour said the same thing yesterday on the air

in response to why it is that western born citizens are getting involved in terrorism on their own soil.

[adriennui]

4. isn't there something wrong with this picture

are we finally at the point where terrorism is excused because you don't agree with foreign policy.

innocent lives lost is never right (unless muslims are perpetrating the acts). this is insanity.


does this give me the right to vandalize(or worse) a mosque because i'm against the blowing up of buildings and planes? i don't think so.

[demosincebirth]

6. Thats what they're saying. Its OK if you're a muslim doing it.

[demosincebirth]

5. Malaysia has been a victim of terrorist attacks ...

more than the UK, and they're a muslim country. So, that blows their argument.

[Igel]

7. Having an expensive car attracts

car thieves, too.

Drive a junker and you usually don't need much of an alarm system.

What they say is true; but what they say is also non-judgmental. But it comes across rather like having some church say that if you offer abortions, an anti-abortion fanatic-murderer might get you. So you you can offer abortion services,but you do so at your own risk.

[Imajika]

8. The UK is a democracy...

If British Muslims don't like Blair's foreign policy they are free to vote for a different party. That's democracy. If they don't like the fact that the candidates they chose don't win and that UK foreign policy does not change, British Muslims can just move to some other country.

The fact that British Muslims don't like UK foreign policy is no excuse.

I've really grown quit sick of people making excuses for Islamic radicals.

[barb162]

14. You're quite right

[Spinoza]

9. I have been re-reading

Churchill's opening volume in his history of WWIII, 'The Gathering Storm' which pre-dominantly deals with the 1930s, German re-arming under Hitler, and the wishful thinking by Britain and France for peace at any price. There is a quote from Neville Chamberlain denouncing Churchill as offering "....AMMUNITION to those who falsely state we are enemies of the German people and of Herr Hitler"

Interesting.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. I think you mean WWII, not WWIII...

And since when have British Muslims been the enemy of the British people??

[barb162]

11. Some British Muslims did the tube and bus bombings last year

and certain British Muslims appear to have planned some terrorist bombings of ten or so planes just recently. Those particular terrorist or planned terrorist acts against the British people indicate certain radicalized British Muslims are the enemy of the British people.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. And there are some real bobos who think 'some' = 'all'

..when it comes to British Muslims, wouldn't you agree? The Churchillian reminders of pre-WWII are talking about one country's relationship with another. In that context and in that era, seeing things saying the German people were the enemy of the British people is one thing, but trying to translate it into a context where British Muslims are seen as the enemy of the British people is quite another...

[barb162]

12. An astute choice of books these days

[Violet_Crumble]

16. Especially for those who think British Muslims = enemies of the British...

[barb162]

13. The extremists need ammo?