Party Vibe

nah, sorry, im sick of this hypocracy. people die all over the world every day, and just because yesterdays victims were rich and white everyone is going on about how fucking terrible it is. every single one of us here on this site bears the responsiblity for the terror that our elected government has inflicted on the world, and when that terror comes back home, i dont think we are in any position to complain.

you get a grip

how many people who were killed were muslim? or voted for RESPECT? or campaigned for peace? or worked / volunteered for charities helping the 3rd world / palestine / kurds / refugees?

we don’t know, butit doesn’t matter anyway, because every human life is equally valuable

do you seriously think that people find the bombing in london terrible because the victims were ‘rich and white’?

i think people find it terrible for the same reason they think bombing civilians Iraq is terrible, for the same reasons they think the Taliban is terrible

we are facing people who want a world where the only rules are violence and fear

and in case you hadn’t noticed, most of the suicide and car bombings in Iraq are killing Iraqi civilians, not ‘rich, white’ people

check yourself

Neither hate nor revenge (or “retaliation”) can be an answer, they can only cloud your judgement of what will make things better.

so true

was saddened to learn the while the emergency services obviously had contingency plans for dealing with a terrorist attack in london, the muslim community needed one as well :blackeye:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4663749.stm

A Muslim surgeon at one of London’s top hospitals involved in the post-attack emergency operations summed up the situation.

As a man who has spent years serving Londoners, he suddenly feared the city’s residents would turn their eyes on their Muslim neighbours – even though they were just as innocent as everybody else.

“Our worst nightmare has come true,” he told the BBC. “I truly hope nobody has the gall to say that this was done in the name of Islam.”

As thousands of Muslims throughout the capital go to Friday prayers, that fear will be shared by many of them.

One Muslim group has already called on women not to go out, predicting those who wear the headscarf could become targets for hate attacks.

Most Muslim leaders suggest this may be a little too cautious – arguing that the community needs to be seen at the heart of society.

But fears of a backlash are rife, not least because in the wake of 9/11 many Muslim communities say they have experienced hateful attacks, be they vandalism of mosques, verbal abuse in the street or worse.

The newly-knighted Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain, has met Home Secretary Charles Clarke, and community leaders are to gather on Friday evening at one of the country’s largest mosques to discuss next steps.

Advice being put out includes a mixture of the cautious – choose seats on buses where you can’t be trapped by a potential assailant – to the more optimistic – walk with confidence to make an attacker think twice.

Community resilience

The East London Mosque, just 200 yards from where the Aldgate bomb detonated in the Underground, holds thousands of worshippers every Friday and is the public face of the East End’s predominantly Bangladeshi Muslim community.

Its chairman Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari said: “I have seen the resilience in this community, I know them well.

“I believe that whatever happens we can cope with it because we have prepared to withstand such situations.”

Ever since 9/11, and particularly since the Madrid train bombings of 2004, there have been behind-the-scenes plans between Muslim and Christian leaders about how to react if and when terrorism came to London.

That plan swung into action with the first statement from Muslim leaders – a joint statement with Churches Together, an inter-faith organisation.

Following Friday prayers at East London Mosque, a host of East End faith leaders gathered again for a silent vigil yards from the Aldgate attack to unite their communities and stand determined against terror. Monsignor John Armitage of the Catholic Church in east London said that he personally felt a strong bond with Muslims because of the way his own faith had been linked to terrorism.

“For many years, the IRA had a campaign of bombing, and when they bombed Birmingham I was a student in the city. Let me tell you that anybody with the briefest understanding of religion should understand that religion has nothing to do with terrorism.

“When people talked of the IRA being Catholic terrorists, they were no such thing. This is why I stand today in solidarity with people of faith, and people of no faith here in the East End.”

Extremist organisations

Some extremist organisations have already started publishing material on websites blaming Muslims, or at the very least their faith, for the London attacks.

It is this expected development that will now concern Muslim leaders trying their best to ensure their community are not blamed.

Many leaders fear they will face a more difficult job in protecting people if rumour and speculation about who was behind the attack makes it into the media.

But Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain says it would be absolutely the wrong thing to do for people to run scared and hide away.

“It would send all the wrong signals,” he said. “By all means exercise caution but people should be doing what they would normally do. To stay at home would be the wrong thing to do.”

Braced for an attack

Dr Bari said the East London mosque has already received hate emails but he had also been heartened by seeing supportive correspondence.

It was this support that the mosque’s Imam Sheikh Abdul Qayum emphasised during his sermon.

Addressing thousands, he said the only way to defeat terror was for communities to stand together and Muslims should feel confident in their identity.

“No religion can accept what these criminals have done,” he said.

Similar messages were being delivered in mosques throughout the UK – but the news on the streets was mixed.

Many Muslims have been quietly bracing themselves for such a terrorist act and bracing themselves for the scrutiny that would come in its wake.

In the East End two young British-born Muslim women said they were resigned to suffering fallout.

“I’m just not bothered any more,” said one.

“Whenever something like this happens, I know we’re going to get targeted. Last time [Madrid train bombings] I got pointed at in the street.”

Her friend added: “I think the mosque leaders are right to speak out as publicly as they can and defend our rights because otherwise the terrorists will win.”

Tohel Miah, 28, was among those willing to give his name, even though he was apprehensive.

“I’ve got a beard, and if you think about it, someone could assume I’m an Arab terrorist,” he said.

“But I believe everyone in Britain will stand by us, I just hope the media do their job and don’t inflame the situation.”

But older members of the community clearly felt more fear.

Two middle-aged women in full veils said they would go to the mosque to say special prayers for the dead, the injured, and all the families involved. “If there was ever a day to pray to God, then that day has come,” said one.

that I certainly agree with – one reason why terrorism does occur is when groups of people have been denied their voice and power through the proper channels, have lost all hope because of this, and become prepared to sacrifice themselves and others for a “cause”.

i used to live in Irsael, in Jaffa, the arab ghetto of Tel Aviv, and in the Arab quarter of old Jerusalem, I stayed in Palestinian villages, and saw first hand the daily violence and oppression delivered by the massive, US sponsored Israeli military machine

I also lived with the regular bombings in Israeli cities, perpetrated, as you say, by people who have no voice, are stateless and without an army to defend them

But Bin Laden cannot be said to fall into this category; a multi-millionare born into one of the richest royal families on the planet

The people who flew planes into the WTC were also from wealthy backgrounds

The majority of people who died in the Madrid train bombings were poor, working class, many were Latin American immigrants trying to scrape a living for them and their families.. on the train going to cleaning jobs, factory jobs

The people attacking the west are fanatics of a warped religious bent… just like Bush

on both sides they take advantage of the weak and poorly educated to deliver their sick intentions… praying on oppressed Palestinian teenagers and women, recruiting them as suicide bombers, or in the case of USA, aggressively recruiting black kids with no prospects, promising them glory from fighting a war the leaders would never fight in

Society may also be making a big and dangerous presumption here of assuming all those who contributed to the incident are all of a particular skin colour or ethnic group – the Spanish authorities eventually found that white Europeans – mostly medium level criminals and drug dealers – had also knowingly supplied explosives to the bombers.

this is a worrying fact

who trained these people?

who has enough knowledge of london?

were an irish republican splinter involved? IRA splinters were caught in columbia training up and arming anyone who could pay them

once the peace process started to gain momentum, people who live by violence found themselves out of work, their expertise wasn’t going to go to waste…in a similar vein, CIA concieved of, recruited, trained, funded and armed al-qu’ida for their own purposes and in doing so unleashed a new form of evil on the world

maybe this is the case in London?

as GL said somewhere… if you really want to ‘combat’ this mentality of violence, the way to do it is by making friends, keeping an open mind, challenging prejudice where you encounter it

if you’re white british, tell friends from ethnic minorities that if they experience backlash, you want to support them… friends of mine from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afganistan all called me on thursday to offer kind words and check me and my family were ok

but in the long term… we have to build bridges of respect and lay the foundations of the road to understanding… this can only be achieved by daily actions of kindness and communication

peace