Of course, we always hear this. I can't recall a jihad arrest after which the suspect's friends and family didn't say that he was a capital fellow, gentle and kind, and that they were shocked, shocked, that he would get mixed up in this sort of thing. Of course, it's unlikely in the extreme that Victoria Banks would get into a friendly chat with Ayesha Siddique about the jihad ideology or the idea of Islamic supremacism, so why wouldn't she go away thinking they were just such sweet people? "Call for counter-terrorism minister after Scots student is arrested," from The Scotsman, with thanks to all who sent this in:
...Mohammed Atif Siddique, 20, was arrested in Alva, Clackmannanshire. Sixty police officers raided his home after a four-month MI5 and Special Branch surveillance operation. A neighbour said Siddique "seemed to become more radical after 9/11".Residents in Alva admitted they were shocked when Siddique was arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act 2000.
Victoria Banks, daughter of local MP Gordon Banks, said: "The family are the nicest people you could ever meet."
After his arrest Siddique was taken to the national holding centre at Govan in Glasgow - the most secure police station in Scotland.
The suspect's parents Mohammed and Parveen, brother Kashif, 23, and sister Ayesha, 17, were also taken away in separate police cars to be interviewed.
Siddique is a computing student who had been studying at a college in Glasgow. The family's solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said: "He's a peaceful individual who is not involved in any groups.
"He's a young man who has a beard. Thousands of young men in Glasgow have beards for religious reasons. That does not make them terrorists."
True, Aamer. But speaking as a bearded person who has never been arrested for terrorist activity, I think you and I both know that his beard is not the reason why he was arrested.
"The family's solicitor, Aamer Anwar, said: "He's a peaceful individual who is not involved in any groups."
Is that peaceful as in "religion of peace" peaceful?
Well, I am reassured (sarcasm off)
dhimmi dhimmi dhimmi
No, Robert, NO!
It was the beard, nothing but the beard!
As your friendly PR advisor I recommend you SHAVE NOW!
.... otherwise you might be next!
I agree. They are the nicest people around.
Booooom!
Robert
Far be it for me to recommend you your grooming habits, but I agree with our Aussie musician above. If you have to have a beard, make it a goatee. Otherwise, you look absolutely like the friendly neighborhood Mullah, albeit well suited. A Titanium Turbo should work well.
Don't shave Robert! Your beard looks great!!
Victoria Banks, daughter of local MP Gordon Banks, said: "The family are the nicest people you could ever meet."
___
How does anyone define the word 'nice'?
Nearly always when, for example, a serial killer is arrested, the neighbours tell the reporters that he was 'nice'.
Neighbours say he became more radical after 9/11
___
Yes, my experience too is that after September 11th lots of Muslims became more zealous.
He was not a member of any group
___
If he is prosecuted and found guilty of terrorist charges this will prove that jihadists can be people who acted on their own intiative and understanding of Islam.
We need to start working on the DSM-IV classification for "sudden-onset-jihadi" syndrome.
A provisional outline would include:
1. Resides in the democratic west.
2. Evidences personality changes since 9/11.
3. Appears more obsessed than before about the plight of the "Palestinian" people and frequently praises the virtues of the Iraqi "resistance".
3. Abandons previous westernized behavior including drinking alcohol, using drugs, attending clubs, listening to rock music.
4. Marked increase in the external manifestations of religious devotion including studying the Quran, spending more time at mosque, growing a traditional beard.
5. Marked increase in criticism of the behavior, dress and lifestyle of more westernized friends and family.
6. Appears calm and more relaxed.
Recommended treatment: Incarceration and Systematic Quran deprivation.
Evil people can be nice, but still evil.
What stupid racist and predudiced police we have in the UK, picking up such a nice boy from a perfect family on these trumped up and wholly unfounded charges just cos he has a beard. They, MI5 and Special Branch, must have jumped to conclusions because he is a muslim.....such a nice pious boy...he couldn't be up to no good, could he?
Maybe he is like that pious and holier than thou Saajit Badat from Gloucester who was portrayed in the same light, who eventually pleaded guilty after being arrested in 2003 to plotting to blow up a plane with a shoe bomb but sh*t out. He also knew about that snide and easy coward tactic of deceiving the trusting decent ordinary folk, the non believers, those whose lives are worthless and should be wiped out. The same people who he grew up with and who looked out for him and helped him and gave him a chance - and rightly so - in a country which welcomed and accommodated his family.
MI5 and the Special Branch do not spend 4 months checking someone out and at the end go for an arrest based upon someone having a beard. The solicitor throwing in an attempt to brandish this arrest - by implication - as islamophobic or racist is laughable.
If caught scream VICTIM VICTIM VICTIM!!! and then leave it to the deluded or cynical lawyers. Oh and by the way, he doesn't need to be a member of any group. He has his terrorist manual, The Koran.
They put their best foot forward, it is in their manual. Here is a link to an online book that needs to be read and re-read.
http://www.lauramansfield.com/j/smalltownusa.asp
From the Belmont Club.
Seemed to describe the current circumstances to a "t".
Earlier this week I was reading David Hume's History of England, and something jumped out at me. As Hume relates it, Alfred the Great, a truly virtuous leader of men, granted his Danish enemies mercy in defeat, even though the rapine and pillaging of those terrible Danes was unsurpassed in its viciousness. Instead of slaughtering the Danes enmass, which is what they were doing to the Angles and Saxons, Alfred allowed them to become citizens and live in their own communities on the island. They were deemed equal under the law, so that murdering a Dane carried the same punishment as murdering a Saxon, and Alfred even allowed them their own Danish vice-roy to act as intermediary between the monarchy and the Danish people. For years these Danes flourished, in places like Northumbria and the "Five Boroughs", and for years England had peace. But the Danes still considered themselves first and foremost Danes, so when a new Danish invasion commenced some years later, the Danes of Northumbria and those in the Five Boroughs rose up against their Saxon neighbors and began, once again, their gruesome business of rape and pillage and wholesale slaughter. Their perfidy in the face of mercy and generosity knew no bounds, or shame. Alfred's humanistic virtues, in allowing the Danes to live freely after they had been defeated, almost led to the complete annihilation of the Anglo-Saxons in England.
It seems to me that history is full of lessons about what happens when one is not ruthless enough. Rare is the story that teaches "nice" as an imperative of survival.
This item comes after the one yesterday, where a great deal was made in Judge Brinkema's courtroom about what an awful and family life Moussaoui had.
So... Moussaoui allegedly became a jihadist because of his miserable upbringing, while Siddique "somehow" became a jihadist in spite of his lovely family.
There's a common thread they're overlooking here in their correlation-causation quandary... it starts with an "I"...
Do you really think that the boston strangler, jack the ripper and son of sam said; upon first meeting,"bitch, I'm gonna strangle you after I cut off your nose and slit your throat?" I think it was more like; "do you know what time it is sweetheart? I'm new in town. where's a good place to stay?" How sweet.
it has to be the beard, some people can wear it like Robert, and not be taken in by islam. others who grow the beard and some how become murderous islamofacists...just joking of course..
hey one of my brothers has a beard, and is darker like Robert, and seems to not be arrested either.. seems he can stay away from islam as well! so you got to be tough to keep and beard and sanity!
"Good muslim" = bad news for infidels.
"bad muslim" =potentially dangerous for infidels...
"Apostate muslim = bad news for muslims...
like Ali Sina or Ibn Warraq...
In the 100%MUSLIM Maldives, almost everybody who does not travel believes that Muslims are persecuted in the infidel lands if they have a beard and Arabic names. Since 9/11 I have visited the USA and Britain on more than one occasion. Most of my Maldivain friends ask the question - were you held up and interrogated at immigration? They are astonished when I tell them that nothing of the sort happened.I have a nicely trimmed full beard and Arabic and Maldivian names in my passport. All Maldivians are forced to have Arabic names.
I would try to dump my Arabic name but that application could turn into an investigation of my apostasy and result in "re-education" at the famous torture rooms of the Mullah Dikator President Gayoom.
" The family are the nicest..."
That is a remark similar to that spoken by neighbors of most serial killers after their arrest. " He kept to himself and was so nice."