    Shock & Awe in London

    by Joh Domingo

    It seems that there are no limits to Muslim skullduggery; Islam
    manufactures an endless stream of people willing to annihilate
    themselves and those in close proximity to them. The evidence mounts in
    a never-ending daily spiral of attacks; against all and sundry; as if
    the self-immolation bug and an irrepressible urge to kill their fellow
    human beings have infected Muslims. It is as if nothing can explain it,
    not even the moderate Muslims that risk physical injury to themselves in
    their efforts to denounce the evident craziness, and their contortions
    to explain the ‘distortions’ that give rise to the phenomena, and
    apportion blame to the occasional misfit that Islam produces.

    Exactly what is being distorted is never actually explained. What a host
    of Islamic leaders, and non-Islamic leaders, seem to suggest is that
    something mysterious is afoot: there are teachings within Islam that can
    be twisted in such a manner as to give rise to a cult that slaughters
    people, for no reason other than to terrorize them. The distorterers
    know no bounds, and apparently rationalize the killing of Muslim and
    non-Muslim alike, believers and unbelievers, in a nihilistic campaign to
    rid themselves, and those they kill, of oppression. What makes it worse
    is that the distorterers have apparently mastered the art of mass
    hypnosis; inducing a trance-like state in fellow Muslims that cause them
    to slip into a state of denial, disclaiming what is patently obvious:
    Muslims are killing themselves and in the process mass-murdering
    countless others, in a daily barrage that offends the senses, and
    banishes religious ethics and morality. What can explain it, and why
    the lame excuses from the Muslim community?

    The answer is quite simple; Muslims, like all communities, are subject
    to bias, and filter the information into digestible chunks. They are
    hardwired to separate the issues, and recognize legitimate activity from
    illegitimate activity. More importantly, they do not believe the reports
    coming at them in an endless stream. It is like watching a movie about
    cowboys and Indians, when you are a Native American living in a White
    Man’s world. You instinctively reject the bull made for the bigoted
    audience, and events assume a surreal quality because what is being
    portrayed, and the characters, is so alien to anything you have ever
    known. Muslims instinctively know that the truth is not what it seems;
    and believe fervently that it will come out in the end. Quite clearly
    Islam produces its share of misfits, but the scale and number of
    incidents are beyond belief, and are an indication that something else
    is afoot; especially in Iraq.

    I am a born Muslim, and have lived amongst, and known Muslims all my
    life. I have known all kinds: Devout, atheist Muslim, agnostic Muslim,
    Fanatical Muslim; but by far the majority of Muslims I have known are
    what I would call nominal Muslims; they believe, but restrict the
    practice of religion to the barest necessary to still call themselves
    Muslim. They are cultural Muslims; brought up within the traditions of
    Islam, most with a strong Islamic education, but unable, or unwilling,
    to diligently practice the strict tenets of their religion. I count
    myself as being a member of the latter. There were periods where I was
    more devout than other periods, but in the main, I have adhered to a
    mere cultural practice of my religion. Never once, in all my fifty years
    on in this world, has anyone suggested that I was not a Muslim, and
    never once have I heard of anyone being excommunicated from Islam for
    non-adherence to the tenets of Islam.

    I have heard reports of communities who practice an austere form of
    Islam, and who enforce the tenets of Islam, but have discounted the
    reports in their entirety because they usually stem from non-Islamic
    sources who more often than not, do not understand what the tenets of
    Islam are. They are five: Prayer, Fasting, Zakaat (Charity), Shahada
    (the belief in one God), and Haj (Pilgrimage). Wearing of Hijab,
    prohibiting Women from participating fully in society, Circumcision,
    Female genital Mutilation, Shariah, military Jihad, and any of the
    hodge-podge of issues that form the bulk of Western reportage on Islam
    are cultural/political/social CHOICES made by the various Islamic
    communities around the world. They are not what makes one a Muslim. The
    single tenet that makes one a Muslim is the belief in one God. Whether
    one diligently practices the other four tenets of Islam is a matter of
    personal devotion. No Islamic authority can enforce them, and I have
    never heard of it being enforced except for some dubious reports coming
    out of Taliban Afghanistan prior to 9/11. Every Muslim understands this;
    almost no non-Muslim I have met understands it. There is no compulsion
    in Islam.

    The proponents of the distortion theory are short on examples of what
    exactly is being distorted. There is no shortage of anti-Islamic
    material that give multiple staccato-like examples of passages from the
    Quran that purport to represent teachings that justify the slaughter of
    innocents. No Muslim interprets these passages this way, not even the
    most fanatical and radical practitioners of the religion; it is simply
    not a credible assertion that any Muslim takes seriously, although its
    credibility has enormous currency amongst non-Muslims. Most Muslims,
    when presented with ‘evidence’ that the high priest of ‘Radical Islam’
    Osama Bin Laden uses such justification, either decline to enter into
    discussion about it (since it leads inevitably into a discussion about
    ‘Conspiracy Theories’ - if one is at least skeptical about the myth
    surrounding this man) or indulge in mealy-mouthed denouncements that
    such teachings go against the teachings of Islam (if one wholeheartedly
    swallows the western interpretations of events).

    It is time ‘Moderate Muslims’ tell the truth: we don’t believe your
    stories, are suspicious of your motives, and it is time you
    substantiated, in an open and transparent way, the assertions you have
    been making about Islam, Muslims, and the actions of Islamic radical
    misfits whose activities have upset you so. Logic dictates that a
    rapprochement between the West and Islamic societies is in order, if
    offense has been created by the activities of the ‘radical elements’ in
    Islamic societies, since it is Muslims who bear the brunt of purported
    Western efforts to counter the effects of radical Islamic revolution.

    But such an effort hinges on honesty from all parties. It is
    inconceivable for a Muslim to accept that Muslims are targeting Mosques,
    (even the mosques of Shi’ites) as is happening with monotonous regularity
    in Iraq. Even Iraqi Shi’ites are skeptical about these claims. These
    events fortify our suspicions that something else is afoot. Any
    insurgent guerilla army relies on the (at least tacit) support of the
    population. Without it, they are doomed. No Muslim, whether Sunni or
    Shia, would support a group that targets mosques; to believe otherwise
    is to believe in the most preposterous conspiracy theory of them all.

    Likewise, while attempts have been made to justify suicide bombing on
    Islamic grounds in Palestine, and in particular the use of that tactic
    by the Islamist party Hamas, these tactics have in no way been endorsed
    by Islamic Jurist, either Shia or Sunni. The oppression of the
    Palestinians by Israel has been so revolting that Muslims have declined
    to pass judgement on the Palestinians for their transgressions. This has
    been used as evidence that Muslims support Suicide Bombing, but nothing
    could be further from the truth. Muslims have suspended judgement on the
    matter, in the face of the desperation of the Palestinian people. Until
    Muslims can offer some relief they do not have the moral authority to
    preach to the Palestinian people. It has become a matter between the
    Palestinian people and God.

    The recent events on 7/7/05 in London bear all the hallmarks of fueling
    the seemingly never-ending jihad against Muslim communities in the
    Middle East and elsewhere. In response to the fusillade of invective
    being directed against the Muslim community and the religion of Islam in
    the West in the wake of the bombings in London, Muslim community leaders
    have been at pains to distance their religion and their communities from
    the bombings. These bombings can legitimately be described as ‘terrorism’.

    However, in doing so they have inevitably given currency to the idea
    that Islam, at least in an ideological manner, has provided the basis
    upon which the perpetrators have justified their actions. These
    apologetics assume the accuracy of the seemingly overwhelming evidence,
    as reported by the mass media, that Muslims were indeed responsible for
    these acts, that they knowingly destroyed the calm, and have
    purposefully taken the lives of the victims. It is hard to discern the
    facts, only to speculate and run the risk of being perceived to be
    rationalizing terrorism. They cannot be blamed for acting preemptively,
    in the face of a real threat their communities are facing; but such
    statements could have a worse, longer-term effect: It cements the
    perception in the wider Western community that Islam does indeed bear a
    fundamental guilt for violent acts against western societies - a
    perception that seems almost impossible to counter.

    Far from it being an open and shut case, appearances can be deceptive.

    An event like this is never as clear-cut as it first seems, and theories
    abound, most of them conspiracy theories. But it is obvious that a
    conspiracy exists (by a segment within Western society) to milk this
    event, to generate as much hatred against Muslims in general as
    possible. They are confident that the obvious perpetrators come from
    within the Muslim community - that a terrorist act like this would
    generate the usual suspect. It is not inconceivable that since such an
    outcome is predictable, a Muslim perpetrator would have been conscious
    of it and that it would be a factor that would weigh on his/their mind.
    We are being asked to discard the effect such knowledge would have had
    on their intentions. We are also being asked to accept that the
    certitude Islam would be blamed does not occur to those that
    manufactured lies that has directly led to the slaughter London
    two-thousand fold in Iraq, and exacted London two-hundred fold in dead
    American military flesh. It is beyond comprehension that this
    possibility is not being seriously discussed, let alone being examined
    by the authorities investigating the bombings.

    But process is being inverted, and the only certainty seems to be that
    Islam has somehow been ‘distorted’, the effect of which is that a group
    of Muslim misfits have killed a lot of people. But statistics would show
    that it is the husband/wife that killed the spouse, not the intruder.
    Most law enforcement personnel are trained to have the closest family
    member at the top of the suspect list. That the spouse should be the
    first to be investigated and ruled out as a suspect before the
    investigation is to proceed any further. Has it been ruled out that any
    maverick, homegrown quasi-official group is not responsible for the
    bombings? Has it been ruled out that the suspected bombers are not in
    fact victims of the bombs? It may be wishful thinking, but it would be
    nice to know procedure is being followed before we go racing around
    defending Islam, which should not be on the suspect list in the first
    place.

    Joh Domingo