The first news item on HS's front page says "Huoli islaminvastaisuudesta kasvaa Ruotsissa" ("Concern over islamophobia is rising in Sweden").
Oh, really? I thought Sweden's biggest news of the weekend was the suicide bombing in Stockholm. Silly me.
When the, ahem, unfortunate incident happened I tried to be a good and unprejudiced citizen and for a moment imagine that it was the Aggressive Amish, the Militant Methodists, the Evil Jews or the Bad, Bad Buddhists. Or maybe a lone Person of Different Sanity (they do indeed happen ever one in a while, though nowadays they tend to convert to one particular religion first).
My poor little prejudiced mind didn't turn out to be all that imaginative, and pretty soon reverted to connecting the unfortunate incident with Islam. I am not sure what gave me that idea: whether it was my evil nature, reading too much Hommaforum, or the letter that the perpetrator sent to Sweden's Security Police and a news agency, blaming the troops in Afghanistan and the Muhammed cartoons and calling on Europe's Mujahedin to rise. One of those things, I am sure.
Not that HS is wrong: the bombing will increase islamophobia in Sweden and probably here as well. People do tend to be a bit phobic about whatever and whoever tries to kill them, I suppose it's just human nature or something.
I do understand many Swedish Muslims' concern about being associated with that fucker, I do appreciate them having a demonstration against terrorism (a very small demonstration but in this weather you can't really blame them), and I don't think that imams speaking out against terrorism is a pointless gesture (they are not going to convince the radicals, but they might convince some of their less-radical support base), I just think that having it as the top news item is a bit weird.
About the suspect himself: he studied in UK, and I suppose it's a matter of time when some connection with Omar Bakri, Abu Hamza, Abu Izzadeen, Anjem Choudary or somebody else from that gang will come up.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
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9 comments:
"When the, ahem, unfortunate incident happened I tried to be a good and unprejudiced citizen and for a moment imagine that it was the Aggressive Amish, the Militant Methodists, the Evil Jews or the Bad, Bad Buddhists. Or maybe a lone Person of Different Sanity (they do indeed happen ever one in a while, though nowadays they tend to convert to one particular religion first)."
Well, in the light of the recent Malmö shootings, it could have also been Nasty Nuivas. Also, Disgruntled Drug-dealers are missing from your list. Or just plain Crooked Criminals.
This incident is reported to be the first Islamist bombing in Scandinavia ever, while there's been a number of bombings by lunatics and criminals.
While I'm tempted to claim that you're now being a Person of Different Honesty, being the nice person that I am, I just blame it on your culture. So try to kick the Homma habit, OK?
Vera, I must confess I love your nasty side...
About imams, their anti-terrorism and so called moderate Muslim's: I'd be very poor if I'd got a thousand dollars every time a moderate Muslim tips off a radical wannabe suicide bomber to the authorities.
O RLY? So who are these people the Taliban is after?
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/30/taliban-says-it-will-target-names-exposed-by-wikileaks.html
Well, I guess I could get rich if I got $1000 every time I catch a nuiva talking out of his or her ass...
Anonymous: *sigh* I knew I should have been exact, I just thought anyone with half a brain (obviously, not the left half) would understand. I meant: 1) in the western countries and 2) not for the money or any other personal gain like the Afganistan western collaborators. But just calling the cops a warning like every civilized common citizen would. Heard many Moslems doing that? I know one case, but I wouldn't quit my day job for $1,000.
The ISAF is in Afghanistan on a UN mandate, fighting for the Afghan government. So informing the govt or the ISAF about unlawful activities is exactly what every common citizen should do.
WRT the West, well, the problem is that the dangerous radicals are much harder to spot when they're not driving around in technicals brandishing AK-47s. In Finland we had Gerdt, Auvinen and Saari, none of whom was taken seriously before their acts, even though with the benefit of hindsight someone should have done something.
Anonymous number one: right. Lots of disgruntled drug dealers or crooked criminals doing suicide bombings on busy shopping streets.
OK, if it were for example a car bombing of a police station or courthouse late at night the Muslims wouldn't be the first suspects.
Jaska Brown: actually Muslims do tip the police off about suicidal radicals; when this happens the radicals usually get caught fairly early and the fact that some Muslims tipped the police off is not very prominent in the news, although you can find those cases if you look for them.
Among the really prominent cases were the Nigerian guy who tipped off the CIA about his own son the pantybomber, and the French Muslims who a couple of years ago made a movie about what is happening in British mosques. The recent DC subway bombing plot was tipped off by Muslims too.
OK, so it happens once in the while, and I know it too. I just believed it's quite rare and if not so, I admit I was wrong. Why don't the news tell us more about it? Any prominent informant should be given a medal for his/hers valour. It would be one of the best ways to calm down this so-called "islamophobia". In fact, I happen to personally know one Afghan Moslem man, of whom I'm sure he would do the right thing (the other Afghans I know I'm not sure of).
Jaska Brown: I think the reason it's usually rather low-profile is that most of these people are concerned for their own safety. If I were a Muslim who just called police on some Al Ghurabaa (or whatever they are called now) guy I'd be more concerned about other Al Ghurabaa guys showing up at my door than about islamophobia.
@Jaska Brown
http://www.theonion.com/articles/fbi-discontinues-witness-protection-parade,716/
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