The case for mistrusting Muslims in the UK
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 8:40 amThe latest terror plots are confronting tolerant Britons with uncomfortable choices.
By Theodore Dalrymple, THEODORE DALRYMPLE is the author of "Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses."
July 8, 2007
One of the most sinister effects of the efforts of the bombers and would-be bombers is that they have undermined trust completely. This is because those under investigation turn out not to be cranks or marginals but people who are either well-integrated into society, superficially at least, or who have good career prospects. They are not the ignorant and uneducated; quite the reverse. Seven people detained in the latest plot worked in the medical profession.
The perpetrators do not bomb because of personal grievance but because they have allowed themselves to be gripped by a stupid, though apparently quite popular, ideology: radical Islam. Nor are they of one ethnic or national group only: We have had Somali, Pakistani, Arab, Jamaican, Algerian and British Muslim terrorists. This means, unfortunately, that no one can ever be quite sure whether a Muslim who appears polite and accommodating is not simultaneously contemplating mass murder. Deceit, after all, is one of the terrorists' deadliest weapons.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la- ... 2943.story
Thoughtful and honest. Read the whole piece before getting your panties in a bunch.
By Theodore Dalrymple, THEODORE DALRYMPLE is the author of "Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses."
July 8, 2007
One of the most sinister effects of the efforts of the bombers and would-be bombers is that they have undermined trust completely. This is because those under investigation turn out not to be cranks or marginals but people who are either well-integrated into society, superficially at least, or who have good career prospects. They are not the ignorant and uneducated; quite the reverse. Seven people detained in the latest plot worked in the medical profession.
The perpetrators do not bomb because of personal grievance but because they have allowed themselves to be gripped by a stupid, though apparently quite popular, ideology: radical Islam. Nor are they of one ethnic or national group only: We have had Somali, Pakistani, Arab, Jamaican, Algerian and British Muslim terrorists. This means, unfortunately, that no one can ever be quite sure whether a Muslim who appears polite and accommodating is not simultaneously contemplating mass murder. Deceit, after all, is one of the terrorists' deadliest weapons.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la- ... 2943.story
Thoughtful and honest. Read the whole piece before getting your panties in a bunch.