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