London bombings: Other side of the story
ASIF ALI KHAN
On July 7, the day of bombings in the British capital, Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and present finance minister of Israel, was to use the London subway at the same time to attend an economic conference at a hotel near the scene of one of the blasts.
According to Amy Teibel, Associated Press correspondent, Scotland Yard informed the Israeli embassy in the morning that some attack was imminent, which prompted Netanyahu to stay back at his hotel.
This may sound coincidental, but after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, it was rumoured that Jews working there had been forewarned. All this smacks of a hidden hand.
It is widely believed the Zionists have involved America to permanently stay in Afghanistan and Iraq so they can get a free hand in committing atrocities in Palestine while the world focuses in the affairs of these occupied countries.
Now the London bombing terrorists will finally lead the US to Syria and Iran, giving another opportunity to the Zionists to make life miserable for the Muslims.
The terrorists timed these bombs with G-8 summit, when the world was concentrating on Britain. This represented a total failure of the British security. The G-8 summit was announced so far in advance that it gave the bombers all the time they needed to prepare. This would have taken months to plan these attacks.
Many people believe that these acts were part of a conspiracy against Islam. They say the September 11 attacks and the London bomb blasts are part of a conspiracy by a powerful lobby in the United States and other foreign countries to discredit Islam and Muslims.
Hatred and militancy played no part in Islamic teachings. But there are brainwashed people who are misusing the meaning of 'jihad' and creating a wrong impression about what Islam preaches. Islamic teachings are against any sort of terrorism. Political causes, not religious beliefs, may have motivated the bombers.
Recently, a prominent UAE preacher denounced as infidels who carry out attacks against innocent civilians around the world, including the perpetrators of the London blasts.
"Do these people not see the results of their actions? They have turned people against us ... and made them link the name of Islam with terrorism," Sheikh Hamdan Musallam al-Mazruhi said in his sermon.
Officials in the UK have started pointing finger towards Pakistani and Arab communities. This shows that they probably adopted only one line of action, ignoring many other possibilities. Such premature accusations are definitely discriminatory and unfair. Most of the Pakistani-origin British nationals are peace-loving people.
Every time there is a terrorist attack in the West, Muslim minorities and their mosques and schools are targeted. This illustrates the dangerous level of hatred and racism that exists in these countries against the Arab and Muslim people. But never did we hear of Christian and Jewish communities in Arab and Muslim countries being attacked, nor their churches, synagogues and schools being torched and vandalised by the local population in retaliation -- nor should they be.
Prime Minister Tony Blair met British Muslim leaders and discussed with them ways to tackle radical Islamists. But radical Muslims dismissed the meeting as a sham and even some moderates said they were suspicious of Blair's agenda.
Britain has been the bastion of radical Islamic organisations, whose leaders have been granted political asylum in the name of human rights, liberty and freedom of speech.
After London bombings Blair turned his attention to Pakistan. In response Islamabad made about 600 arrests in a crackdown on militant elements.
But President Pervez Musharraf said in an interview that the London bombers were British nationals. "The problem is not in Pakistan but in England," he said.
He said England had been slow to react to growing extremism within its own borders. This included not acting upon a Fatwa issued against him.
Musharraf said, "there is no credible intelligence tying the London bombers to Pakistan, despite reports that three of the four had spent time there.
President Bush and Prime Minister Blair must tackle underlying causes of terrorism to stop terrorism in the West.
Blair said in a recent statement: "World must deal with the causes of terror". The same view is always emphasised by President Musharraf at all times and almost on all occasions when he meets Western leaders.
Blair said, "The underlying reason for terrorism must be pulled up by the roots".
This also appears to echo what President Musharraf said some time back, but these suggestions have never been taken into consideration at that level before.
The biggest root of terrorism is the festering issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine in flagrant violation of UN resolutions.
The other root cause is the occupation of Iraq.
Undoubtedly, a viable, sovereign Palestinian state side by side with Israel and ending the occupation of Iraq will have a benign impact on Muslim sensibilities and opinion. Britain and the US need to find a decent exit strategy for the sake of security of their own citizens and establishment of peace in Iraq.
Blair has faced pressure in recent days over claims his support for the Iraq war made Britain a more tempting target for terrorism, a view expressed recently by the Royal Institute of International Affairs think tank.
A recent newspaper poll said two-thirds of Britons believed there was a link between the London bombings and the occupation of Iraq. But it is truly ironic that death and mayhem should have been inflicted upon a city where some of the biggest anti-war demonstrations took place before the invasion of Iraq.
The British capital's mayor Ken Livingstone in his recent interview to BBC also cited Western policy in the Middle East and early American backing for Osama bin Laden during the Afghan war with the Soviet Union as the reasons for the London bombings.
WEEKEND MAGAZINE (July 30 2005):
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