A mild-mannered English teacher tried to kill his sister and continued to issue threats of violence even while in prison for an earlier threat. He says it’s because he’s a Muslim. The proper response to this from authorities would be to study his motivations thoroughly as he sees them, and come to a full understanding of how and why he believes that his Islamic faith commands him to commit acts of violence. Then an additional crucial step would be to survey the extent of such sentiments in the larger Muslim community, and take all necessary steps both to eradicate such sentiments — by aggressively prosecuting those who teach such things, and making sure that every mosque and Islamic school teaches against jihad and Islamic supremacism, and teaches the necessity to coexist with unbelievers as equals in a secular society on an indefinite basis. Those that do not comply should be shut down.
The stupid and self-defeating response to this would be to assert — without any solid evidence whatsoever — that Saeed Ghafoor is twisting, hijacking, and misunderstanding Islam, and that the vast majority of Muslims have no desire to live under Sharia and no intention of imposing it at any point in the future, in whole or part, and that every religious text has violent passages, and anyway, what about the Crusades?
The latter response, however, remains the mainstream and dominant one.
An update on this story. “Bluewater bomb fantasist hospital target threats,” from the Gravesend Reporter, March 12 (thanks to Religion of Peace):
A FANATICAL British Muslim who is in prison for threatening to blow up Bluewater shopping centre has been jailed for another 16 months.
Saeed Ghafoor, 34, was jailed in June last year after claiming he was plotting to detonate car bombs at the popular shopping centre in Greenhithe.
But on Friday the father-of-one appeared at the Old Bailey where the court heard he had threatened to blow up Southampton General Hospital on his release from prison.
The fantasist asked to see police officers at Belmarsh prison in south London and told them: “I’m a Muslim. I support Al Qaeda.”
He claimed he would carry out the attack on the hospital – near his family home – when he was released, using cars packed with gas canisters.
Ghafoor was then interviewed by anti-terrorist officers based in Hampshire two months later and confirmed the threat.
Prosecutor Piers Arnold said: “He recalled speaking to police officers while in prison and telling them about his plan to carry out a terrorist attack at Southampton General Hospital using a car bomb with explosive gas canisters.
“He said he was planning the attack but could not disclose when he was planning to carry it out.
“He said it was a protest against the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and he knew how to make bombs.
‘”He said he was carrying out the operation to show his support for Al Qaeda.”
The Old Bailey heard Ghafoor had been a happily married teacher of English as a foreign language until the breakdown of his relationship in 2007.
In September that he tried to strangle his sister during a row and in January 2008 was jailed for 12 months….