Respond to the Terrorists in London

After time for shock to subside and calm reflection to take hold - it is time to comment on the London Bombings.

Part of me responds as an Iraqi. Iraqis are saddened by the London bombings because it is so close to what we have experienced daily for many years. But Iraqis are also angery and resentful by the way this dominates the world media compared to the way deaths of Iraqis are treated. One Iraq - who speaks for many said:

"This is because Iraqis are like chicken and nobody cares about the killing of a chicken, but the British are the lords of this world."

However this does not solve anything and this is the point of my post. A well cosidered and typical reponse is from Harrys Place.

see the full post here...

I wish to thank Harry for such well considered post. I followed Harrys posts for a long time and though I may think he is wrong - sometimes very wrong - his thoughts are heartfelt and he takes his politics seriously. So, Harry, please take these comments seriously too.

The struggle against these terrorists is the identical if not part of the struggle against the racist right in the UK. I see no difference between these terrorists and the National Front (NF) or the British National Party (BNP). They both seek to dehumanise sections of society to legitimise their actions against them.

It is wrong to compare the 7/7 bombings to the actions of the IRA. The only link is the spectacular size of the explosions. A long time ago the IRA relaised that indiscriminate killings of innocent people in England is counter to their aims.

It is also wrong to single out the Muslim community to look into their own society. You cant just lump muslims into one category and say 'look at you'. There is not just one kind of Muslim. Britian has a liberal cross section of Muslims from over 100 million from societies all over the world. To say there is a generic Muslim society is also in its own way a racist generalisation. The group that supports this terrorism comes from very specific and small cults. Much like the kind of cults that led Oklahoma Bomber.

No - if you want to understand who these terrorists are look into your own society. Look at the way racists victimise and kill people they view as inferior. Remember the Asian boy who was killed by a racist thug at Feltham Young Offenders Prison. Remember the racist guards who put those two in the same cell. Have you forgotten the Brixton Bomber or the Soho pub bombings? The painful truth is that such terrorism exists at home. I would go further to say that such racial/religious terrorism is alien to Arab culture but something that has been exported to the Middle East from Europe.

Understand this and the effective response is clear. There is the need for all political society to unite against the terrorists - stop grandstanding on Galloway - his position on how to deal with the terrorsts is not that far from those of the conservative right or Harry's Democratic Left. Stop saying things like - its a bit rich coming from someone who said this about Iraq or that about Palestinians. Iraq and Palestine are a thousand miles away - this is on our doorstep  - we will only unite by sober dedbate and common aims.

The way you deal with this is to create a broad movement like the Anti Nazi League ands the various Anti Fascist Associations and bring in all sections of society.

Maybe Britain should learn something from the Iraqis. In the 1920's and now when a Shia or Sunni community was hit by an attrocity, people from the other community would cross over and show solidarity by praying together in the victims mosques.

So my message to all the British and the Left at this time is first look into yourselves for the casues and stop dividing each other over matters that are not related. If you want to stop these bombers go to the mosques and show solidarity with all the Muslim communities. Listen to these communities and let them hear you. Dont allow one section of society to become alienated from the other. In the same way the Anti Nazi League went to the poor working class communities that were/are the recruiting grounds of the racist thugs go to the same communities that are the recruiting grounds for these thugs.