London Murderers and other developments
It is said that a good picture tells a story. In the case of the two Muslims charged with murdering a British soldier it is unfortunate in one respect that courts do not permit photos of actions of accused when in court. However the London Daily Mail employed a scribe to draw the actions of one at the initial charge and these have been published. The article, which is reproduced here, is headed “Posing like Usain Bolt and kissing the Koran, Woolwich suspect now known as ‘Abu Hamza’“. It illustrates the depth of the problem faced in Britain in handling extremist Muslims (I have deleted those photos in the article which were only of police and police vehicles). Indeed, to Australia too, albeit on a lesser scale.
This problem is enhanced by the fact that a significant proportion of Muslims (and some who are not) accept the argument that, as the West and its soldiers are killing Muslims in countries such as Afghanistan, the killing of Western soldiers elsewhere is justified – an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Perhaps the main thing to add here is that it is fortunate in one respect that the murderers did not have or chose not to use suicide bombs or the like.
Note also that, in addition to the two charged, six other men have also now been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. But, strangely, these have all been released on police bail.
Tony Blair Statement
Before he resigned as British PM, Tony Blair made a speech which included a warning about the Islamic threat. After his resignation he became a Middle East envoy working on behalf of the US, Russia, the UN and the EU and this would have improved his knowledge of the threat. Now, following the murder of the British soldier, he has published a further warning (in the Daily Mail) about Islam viz,
“There is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology which is a strain within Islam,’ he writes. “We have to put it on the table and be honest about it. Of course there are Christian extremists and Jewish, Buddhist and Hindu ones. But I am afraid this strain is not the province of a few extremists. It has at its heart a view about religion and about the interaction between religion and politics that is not compatible with pluralistic, liberal, open-minded societies”.
ABC 7.30 Report
Tonight’s 7.30 Report has presented a follow-up on last Thursday’s revelation about the support for the extremist activities of the Al Risalah Bookstore in Bankstown. It highlighted differences within the Muslim communities in Western Sydney about attitudes to the fighting in Syria and revealed threats being made to those not supporting the al Quaeda group for which some Australian Muslims are fighting. Not surprisingly the bookstore refused to agree to an interview.
Obama
More reports suggest Obama is trying to deflect attention away from himself on the various troublesome issues I have mentioned, which are being characterised as having created “a deficit of trust”. Bob Woodward of the Washington Post now says that when “you lump all these things, IRS and Benghazi together... what you’ve got is a feeling that no one’s coming clean, we aren’t getting straight talk”.
On the surveillance of journalists, the New York Times reports Obama as being extremely dissatisfied with the performance of Attorney General Holder over his handling of the surveillance allegations, which included his subpoena naming a leading journalist of Fox News as a co-conspirator in an espionage investigation. The report suggests the White House is looking to Holder to resign.
A former Obama aide is reported as attacking the Republican chair of the Congressional committee, Darrell Issa, considering the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS. The former aide is claiming that Issa’s pre-Congressional record makes him untrustworthy. Groups who claim to have been targeted by the IRS are about to be testified by the committee.
Des Moore
4 June 2013