Monday, July 02, 2007

Terrorism in Britain

The discovery of the two car bombs in London last weekend and the terrorist attack by a car bomb on Glasgow airport clearly emphasize that Britain is under terrorist attack. It was very lucky that the bombs did not detonate and so there were no casualties this time.
If I were to suggest that these attacks are Jewish-inspired, for example because of the many attacks on Israel by British organizations, including academic and other unions, no doubt you would be aghast. Whereas in fact everyone knows that this is Islamist-inspired terrorism, spreading from the Middle East around the world.
Britain is in a difficult bind, because it has a large Muslim minority population, many of whom are poor and harbor both the usual minority as well as specifically Muslim antagonisms. Having been born in England to immigrant parents (although my mother was born in England three of my grandparents were immigrants) I can testify to the feelings of alienation that a poor immigrant can feel in a predominantly aloof society. However, balanced against this are the facts that it was and still is possible for British-born children of immigrants to be upwardly mobile and to fit into a mainly friendly society.
Further, the Jewish immigrants to Britain did not have the specifically Muslim response to Western society, namely that it is "immoral" and "decadent" and should be replaced by their own Sharia law. On the contrary, Jews were intent in one way or another of fitting into or integrating in British society, while a minority of the Muslims want to change it to suit their interests. This campaign of terrorism although seemingly amateurish and sporadic, definitely intends to change the world.
It is this sense of hatred for the society in which they have grown up or chosen to live that separates these Muslims from all other immigrants. They believe that their Islamic society is in fact superior to the Western model and this gives them the right no kill whomever they like (infidels) in order to achieve their goals. The fact that Britain allowed many hundreds of thousands of Muslims from Pakistan and India to settle there, puts Britain in a different situation than the other Western countries (e.g. France, Belgium, USA), whose Muslim populations are generally of Arabic origin. In a sense the Muslims in Britain are more integrated into British society than in these other countries and consequently it makes it harder to understand and more difficult to root out this kind of home-grown terrorism.
As the details of these incidents become clearer and the huge amount of forensic information becomes available, the new British Government will have to enact changes that might at first seem arduous. But, as we here in Israel can testify, these actions are both necessary and effective. If the new British Government needs advice in dealing with a dangerous Muslim minority I know a good address.

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