Pussyfooting Around The Terrorists
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted Thursday, July 05, 2007 4:20 PM PT
War On Terror: Judging from the political correctness coming from British leaders, one wonders if the threat facing the West is terrorism or racism. You can't win a war if you don't know you're in one or who the enemy is.
Failure to recognize the nature of the war we're in and who the enemy is seems to be a theme of the government of newly instated British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. In words reminiscent of Bill Clinton's treatment of the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, 10 Downing Street seems to think the latest terrorist plot is strictly a law enforcement matter.
As the London Daily Express reports, Brown has instructed his ministers, including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, to avoid using the word "Muslims" in connection with the current crisis. And indeed, in a BBC-TV interview last Sunday Brown did not refer to Muslims or Islam once — not even to say, as is often said here in the U.S., that a great religion of peace had been hijacked once again.
A Brown spokesman has confirmed that the phrase "war on terror" has been dropped, explaining that "there is clearly a need to strike a consensual tone in relation to all communities across the U.K." So, the stirring words of Churchill, Thatcher and Blair in moments of crisis have been officially replaced with Rodney King's famous lamentation, "Can't we all just get along?"
Smith has said that "terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions." Which is certainly true. But the latest attacks, like the London subway bombings, are not random cases of arson and violence, but part of an Islamofascist war on the West that rages from Bali to Amman to Madrid to London to New York.
In responding to Smith's words, Tory backbencher Philip Davies wondered, "What purpose is served by this? I don't think we need pussyfoot around when talking about terrorism." As one reader asked on the Daily Express' Web site, "Well, if they aren't Muslims, what the hell are they? They sure aren't Methodists or Quakers."
It is true that not all Muslims are terrorists, nor should all be under suspicion. It's also true that, save for the occasional convert, most terrorists have been young Muslim males of Middle Eastern or Asian descent. To some, this is profiling. In police work, it's called a description of the suspects.
That description has changed slightly with the advent of the so-called "homegrown" terrorist. With the Fort Dix Six and the current crop of deadly doctors, they could be anybody anywhere, even respected and trusted medical professionals. The one common thread, though, is a dedication to Islamofascism not likely to be found among, say, Anglicans.
London played host to the infamous Finsbury Mosque. It was the spiritual home for "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid and al-Qaida trainee Feroz Abassi, the man who allegedly plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in France. A belated police raid found it stocked with chemical weapons gear, as if the mosque was planning to live through a chemical attack.
Scotland Yard has reported that the London subway bombers regularly heard sermons by radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, the former imam of the Finsbury mosque. He regularly preached the legitimacy of "martyrdom operations" against infidels.
Recently the European Union, agreeing that not all Muslims were terrorists, at least decided to find out which ones were. In May, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini announced the EU would be monitoring mosques. Italian Interior Minister Guilliano Arnato said Europe had evidence of the "misuse of mosques, which instead of being places of worship, are used for other ends."
They have been used by groups like Al Muhajiroun ("the immigrants"), which celebrated 9/11 as "A Towering Day in History" and whose leader had ties to Osama bin Laden. It operated freely post-9/11. Its spokesman, Anjem Choudry, proclaimed, "One day the black flag of Islam will be flying over Downing Street."
If Islam is a religion of peace and Muslims are as likely as anyone else to be victims, then they need to decide whether it's worse to be offended or dead, and oppose — as well as expose — those among them who support murder and terror. We should be free to look for them, even in a mosque.
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