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| A meat cleaver that the 'Three Musketeers' plotters planned to use in their attack (West Midlands Police). Source: INDEPENDENT |
Usman Khan, perpetrator of the latest Islamist terrorist atrocity in London, will have expected to be greeted by 72 virgins as his reward for being 'martyred' for his faith when he was shot dead by police.
The two young people Khan killed were taking part in a prisoner rehabilitation program. Khan had been invited to participate but the hand of friendship was of no consequence. Whatever good work his victims were doing to help Khan and other ex-prisoners, they were still classed as infidels in the ideology to which Khan subscribed.
The two young people Khan killed were taking part in a prisoner rehabilitation program. Khan had been invited to participate but the hand of friendship was of no consequence. Whatever good work his victims were doing to help Khan and other ex-prisoners, they were still classed as infidels in the ideology to which Khan subscribed.
He would have regarded himself as a martyr because he, along with many other Muslims, was waging war on the kafir. The fact that his targets were innocent was irrelevant. In their book non-Muslims are regarded as 'unbelievers' deserving punishment, as do erring Muslims who can be sentenced to death for their apostasy .
Khan was sent to prison as a convicted terrorist. He entered a 'breeding ground for Islamist extremism' where he lied about his de-radicalisation as permitted under his ideology thus earning early release from prison.
The Independent reported following an earlier terrorist incident in 2018 that three prisoners, the 'Three Musketeers', mingled with fellow extremists they met in jail. They reinforced their beliefs there before turning their attention to "wreaking bloodshed" in the UK.
The lead commissioner for Countering Extremism told the Independent at the time: “Experts and those working in prisons have raised significant concerns with me about the spread of extremist ideas and behaviours among serving prisoners. This includes the risk that individuals are becoming more extremist in prisons. There are also fears about what happens when prisoners who advocate extremist beliefs and behaviour – whether Islamist or far-right supporters – are released into our communities.”
After the latest killings outraged commentators again demanded answers to some "difficult questions" about early release and de-radicalisation but what drives a desire to kill and maim innocent people who do not share their beliefs?
That is the most difficult question but it will not be addressed for fear of attracting accusations of Islamophobia, a label concocted to ensure that, unlike other faiths, Islam is beyond question.
Postcript [04.12.2019]
Five boys and pastor among 14 Christians shot dead in Burkina Faso church massacre
"An Islamist extremist attack on a church in Komondjari Province, south-east Burkina Faso, during Sunday morning worship on 1 December." - Barnabasfund
Far away from London and one of many Islamist attacks abroad which are seldom mentioned in the British media.
These are not about historical events. Christians today are being persecuted all around the world.
From the Interim Report of the Bishop of Truro’s Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of FCO Support for Persecuted Christians:
"Violent persecution exists in many forms. Firstly there is mass violence which regularly expresses itself through the bombing of churches, as has been the case in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia, whereby the perpetrators raise levels of fear amongst the Christian community and attempt to suppress the community’s appetite to practice its right to public expression of freedom of religion and belief. State militaries attacking minority communities which practice a different faith to the country’s majority also constitutes a violent threat to Christian communities such as the Kachin and Chin people of Myanmar and the Christians of the Nuba mountains of Sudan. The torture of Christians is widespread in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Eritrean prisons, and beatings in police custody are widely reported in India."
If Islam became dominant in this country why would Christians here be treated differently to Christians abroad?
Postcript [07.12.2019]
Islam has three political strategies; immigration, population and violence. Reflections on Usman Khan...
"There is a precondition for rehabilitation -- you've got to want it ... it doesn't just happen through educational programmes
Facts of 'terrorist' killings are clear but our society is divided by the meaning" - Bishop Gavin Ashenden
The lead commissioner for Countering Extremism told the Independent at the time: “Experts and those working in prisons have raised significant concerns with me about the spread of extremist ideas and behaviours among serving prisoners. This includes the risk that individuals are becoming more extremist in prisons. There are also fears about what happens when prisoners who advocate extremist beliefs and behaviour – whether Islamist or far-right supporters – are released into our communities.”
After the latest killings outraged commentators again demanded answers to some "difficult questions" about early release and de-radicalisation but what drives a desire to kill and maim innocent people who do not share their beliefs?
That is the most difficult question but it will not be addressed for fear of attracting accusations of Islamophobia, a label concocted to ensure that, unlike other faiths, Islam is beyond question.
Postcript [04.12.2019]
Five boys and pastor among 14 Christians shot dead in Burkina Faso church massacre
"An Islamist extremist attack on a church in Komondjari Province, south-east Burkina Faso, during Sunday morning worship on 1 December." - Barnabasfund
Far away from London and one of many Islamist attacks abroad which are seldom mentioned in the British media.
These are not about historical events. Christians today are being persecuted all around the world.
From the Interim Report of the Bishop of Truro’s Independent Review for the Foreign Secretary of FCO Support for Persecuted Christians:
"Violent persecution exists in many forms. Firstly there is mass violence which regularly expresses itself through the bombing of churches, as has been the case in countries such as Egypt, Pakistan and Indonesia, whereby the perpetrators raise levels of fear amongst the Christian community and attempt to suppress the community’s appetite to practice its right to public expression of freedom of religion and belief. State militaries attacking minority communities which practice a different faith to the country’s majority also constitutes a violent threat to Christian communities such as the Kachin and Chin people of Myanmar and the Christians of the Nuba mountains of Sudan. The torture of Christians is widespread in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Eritrean prisons, and beatings in police custody are widely reported in India."
If Islam became dominant in this country why would Christians here be treated differently to Christians abroad?
Postcript [07.12.2019]
Islam has three political strategies; immigration, population and violence. Reflections on Usman Khan...
"There is a precondition for rehabilitation -- you've got to want it ... it doesn't just happen through educational programmes
Facts of 'terrorist' killings are clear but our society is divided by the meaning" - Bishop Gavin Ashenden
You ask, "What drives a desire to kill and maim innocent people who do not share their beliefs?" Unfortunately such practice is not just a stain on Muslim history but on our own - just think of the Spanish Inquisition or the horrors related in Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
ReplyDeleteOf course such religious fanaticism is often tied up with politics, or a lust for power, or even (dare one suggest?) some kind of perverse erotic stimulation. What causes it is a complex question and, to be perfectly honest, I don't think it is being ducked in the way you suggest. What I see in the media aren't people saying, "We can't ask that because we might be accused of Islamophobia" but rather folk saying, "We really find it hard to get into the mindset of these people".
On "Newsnight" yesterday the BBC brought out Manwar Ali, who I used to know slightly. He was once strongly Islamist and I think fought in Afghanistan; however for the last 15 years at least he has been committed to combatting radical Islamisation in Britain. But even folk like him know they don't have all the answers. He is certainly critical of Imams in mosques and prisons who, he says, aren't doing enough to counteract Islamist thinking.
Are you saying that because Christians 500 years ago were violent then it's OK for Muslims today? Surely not. I'm not sure what point you ARE trying to make.
DeleteOf course I'm not. The point I'm trying to make is that the reasons which drive people to commit atrocities in the name of religion are complex. We don't know, for instance, why from two people brought up in identical environments one becomes radicalised and the other doesn't. These issues clearly need to be studied more; and I don't hear folk saying that they can't be studied because to do so would be seen as Islamophobic.
Deletehe might get white raisins;
ReplyDeletethe language in the koran is not clear; it could be read as 'fifty virgins', or as 'white raisins'.
DeleteNo easy answer to this. There's always the option of simply incarcerating convicted violent ideological terrorists for life, which by minimizing (though inevitably never eradicating) risk arguably plays safe. But that - apart from being hugely expensive - runs up against the issue of what sort of society we want to be. Sisi in Egypt, al Assad in Syria, the infamous Saddam and the Sauds all use that tactic; models which are less than encouraging.
ReplyDeleteAnd sometimes, of course, minds are changed: the Quilliam Foundation was set up by three ex-jihadi Muslims who were once members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. Christians of all people recognize the possibility of μετάνοια. So what do we do, as a society, in response to militant fundamentalist Islam? There certainly needs to be some considered and coherent response, because it's a phenomenon which certainly isn't going to disappear any time soon.
There's no complete answer which will entirely resolve the matter and neutralize the threat, but I make one or two suggestions which, if explored and 'polished up' legally speaking, might at least to some degree address it:
1. That anyone possessing dual mationality convicted of committing or of planning an act of terrorism should have his/her UK citizenship rescinded and should be immediately deported on completion of sentence.
2. That the mosque and any other Islamic religious or social centre which convicted jihadists frequented should be thoroughly searched and investigated, and any literature on the premises, or any teaching conclusively proved to have been given, which demonstrably incites acts of violence - rather than merely expressing a hostile opinion about Christians, Jews, western 'immorality', &c. - should result in the mosque or centre being closed down and any clerics and official lay leaders possessing dual nationality should also have their UK citizenship removed and be required to leave the country.
You might raise the argument that such clerics and lay leaders in the mosque council shouldn't be penalized if they're not proved to be complicit in the planning or execution of a terrorist act. But faith leaders, whether clerics or lay, hold positions of responsibility in a congregation and are responsible for its good order, and proof that literature or teaching which incites violence is evidence, at the least, of a degree of complicity in any act of terrorism carried out by someone who frequented the place. Not a few Islamic centres routinely recruit and import ill-educated rural clerics unable to speak English whose main qualification seems to be that they come from the same part of south Asia as most of the congregants. Even if they themselves appear to have had no malign intent, it's clearly arguable that they're inadequately equipped to pastor their people.
Clearly, implementation of policies such as these won't make the threat of sporadic acts of violent terror go away entirely. But it would demonstrate a serious and settled readiness at least to begin addressing the issue with rigour and determination. At this point in time we can't undo either past foreign policy decisions which have contributed to militant Islamist terror or reverse sixty years of policy on inward migration which has resulted in large communities of people living in the UK whose worldview and values are radically different from, and sometimes wholly opposed to, those generally held here. But clearly there's a need to begin to act in an organized and systematic way to reduce the risk of random acts of jihadist terror in some of our cities.
sensible proposals to my mind.
DeleteWhen will authorities and government realise and accept that Islamic terrorists cannot be absorbed into the normal parole system, where, it seems, they are unchallenged by probation officers who accept their words of moderation and alleged good intention.
ReplyDeleteYes, offenders do change their habits, but Islamic teaching prevents the terrorists from adopting a new way of thinking.
Such brutal dishonest ungrateful murderers should be exiled,and it is not beyond the scope of our current right wing government to do this.
It would help if there were general acceptance in this country of the True Religion. From my house I can see several illuminated representations of "Santa Claus" with accompanying inscriptions of "Ho Ho Ho", but not much to indicate that we're preparing to celebrate the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.
ReplyDeleteYou put your finger on it. The terrorists spread their hate and faith while simultaneously employing all the benefits accruing from our Christian heritage, i.e freedom of speech, the law, equality etc. The situation of two major religions co-existing in one small nation like our own is probably unsustainable.
DeleteLW
Sadly true; but I don't think we could call Santa a terrorist ...
ReplyDeleteYou say, "If Islam became dominant in this country ...". Yet the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, in response to a Freedom of Information request in August last year, give a Muslim population of 3.4 million out of a total British figure of 65.3 million. In other words, 61.9 people in Britain are NOT Muslim, even though things may not look like that in certain urban enclaves.
ReplyDeleteI would also suggest that, while Islam is obviously winning some converts, the overwhelming majority of British Muslims come from families with particular cultural backgrounds, eg Arab or Bangladeshi. And I would finally ask what will happen to Islam in British society in the future? My guess is that, over one or two generations, secularisation, assimilation and marrying out will diminish its fervour and blunt its impact, although there will be (just as in Christianity, actually) a small group of fervent Fundamentalists who react strongly against this trend. It is these who present a danger to society.
That strikes me as a sound and pragmatic assessment.
DeleteAs Islamic families can have several wives and a dozen of children throughout them, I think that you underestimate what's coming our way. I know we want to be nice and see the good in everyone but...
DeleteWhile there is some truth in what you say, even the highest projected figure for the UK Muslim population is still only 13 million by 2050. In fact it is likely to be significantly lower, for two reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe first is that, while the Muslim population is in general younger than the average of the country as a whole, and fertility rates are higher, there is a discernible trend in western Europe of Muslim families growing smaller (i.e. having fewer children) over time.
The other factor is that the most "pessimistic" (which I know is a pejorative word) assumes that all Muslims will remain as faithful as they are now. But what tends to happen in religious groups living in a secular society is that fervour and adherence decrease down the generations - although the folk will still describe themselves as members of that religion. Allied to this will be young Muslims who become totally secularised. What is interesting is that to call oneself a Muslim is both a religious and a cultural construct; this would be true of Jewish people and, until fairly recently, many Irish, Poles or Russians as well. And it's still true in the native British population: how many people call themselves "Church of England" (or CinW) but never attend church nor practice their alleged religion? I think it's likely we'll see this developing in the next couple of generations of British Muslims.
You make a credible point. When I lived in south Manchester we had a Bengali neighbour whose supportive father, in the face of some opposition from the extended family, chose a Bengali guy living in Manchester as prospective husband for his daughter because he (the prospective husband) was supportive of his wife pursuing higher education and having a career of her own.
DeleteThey had two children, whom my neighbour ensured had the best available secular western education, scrimping so that they could go to the best local private schools; and she minimized their contact with both the family back home and the local Bengali community in case they were distracted from the educational path to success.
And she succeeded: the son became a medical doctor and the daughter a civil engineer. Neither could speak Bengali, neither practised Islam and they were both entirely westernized; their upbringing, guided by their mum, made that inevitable.
But when they were settled in their careers their mum wanted to choose a Bengali spouse for both of them, in the time-honoured and traditional way. Neither of the children would accept that, and as a consequence she's alienated from both of them and they from her. They no longer have contact, and both are now in long-term relationships with Brits whom they met through their work.
When you say 'My guess is that over one or two generations, secularisation, assimilation and marrying out will diminish (Islam's) fervour and blunt its impact' I suspect that this is the sort of thing you mean.
BT. I think you are being probably very complacent. Is it valid to equate Islam with Christianity in saying 'what tends to happen in religious groups' and that their fervour will decline so we don't need to bother about them? From what we have seen in the world in recent years I think we can say Islam is a bit more of a threat than you seem to be suggesting. Also, 13 million Muslims is a large number, part-secularised or not, and the problem of two major religions co-existing in our major institutions remains.
DeleteLW
And even if you are right - till then? How many "thoughts and prayers and tealights". The hope that it MAY burn itself down into a smaller group will not put men, women and children back together again. It's mot a religion that people grow out of - it's and ideology.
ReplyDeleteThis is where I find it hard to comment as my studies have been in Sociology of Religion rather than Philosophy of Religion! But, it seems to me, any serious-minded religion which aims to not only encourage worship of a deity but inculcate norms of individual and societal behaviour can also be called an "ideology". To use the language of St James, "Faith without works is dead" - in other words, our religious beliefs will (and should) lead us to behave in certain ways. The danger, of course, comes when that ideology is malign or evil.
ReplyDeleteTiquia,!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSo does no-one on this site believe in the possibility of redemption for anyone?
ReplyDeleteI thought that was the business we were in!
BT - open your eyes and look what's is happening all over Europe. Don't let the British media mislead you. Jihad is well underway and those who offer a welcome hand find it gets chopped off.
ReplyDelete