I just received this email from a contact on the Continent:
I just heard a London police official state in a news conference that Islam and terrorism have nothing to do with each other. Adding to that absurd statement, he said that (paraphrase) “as I understand it, people who practice Islam and people who did this have nothing to do with Islam, which teaches peace.”
I have not been able to verify this, but it wouldn’t surprise me. It’s certainly the prevailing notion. And as long as this kind of thinking persists, terrorists will continue to be recruited in mosques and madrassas, and people like this official, if he said this, will continue to be surprised when they blow up buses and trains.
This kind of thinking does no one any good. It is, in the first place, false, and falsehoods never get you anywhere. It also prevents the hard questions from being asked and answered about why these things are happening and what we must do about it.
More on this at the Cryptic Subterranean blog.
UPDATE: Here, with thanks to Vashti, is a look at what was being taught recently in some British mosques. Watch a few of these clips and tell me this has nothing to do with Islam.