“After the London Bombings: ‘Our Dead Have Names Too’: Messages from a Muslim e-mail list,” from the Village Voice, with thanks to Sparta (there are many good links in the original):
There are some 2 million Muslims in Britain. The Western media would paint a simple of image of them as largely good citizens and supporters of the war on terror, except for a few really bad apples.
British authorities claim 600 now in the U.K. were trained by al Qaeda, some of whom may have been behind the July 7 terrorist bombings in London that killed at least 52 commuters. Hundreds of suspected jihadists have been arrested in recent years and thrown into the Belmarsh high-security prison. While it’s possible to round up the usual suspects in Britain, there is not a great deal of compelling evidence — just as in the U.S. — that security services have exposed any more than a handful of true al Qaeda members.
Beyond the bombers, who may or may not have been on a suicide mission, there are the rhetoricians. One organization, called the Party for Islamic Renewal, regularly loads my mailbox with a collection of tirades. Since the group is angry, it’s labeled radical. Operated through an Arabic language website, tajdeed.net, the party is organized by Mohammed al-Massari, a Saudi dissident. In the past, the British government unsuccessfully tried to deport him, and in the mid 1990’s he helped Osama bin Laden open a London office, according to the BBC….
Reprints of the email messages follow. Read it all.