Yesterday the Daily Mail, a London tabloid, had a fascinating piece by Hassan
Butt, a former Muslim fanatic:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed
the British Jihadi Network--a series of British Muslim terrorist
groups linked by a single ideology--I remember how we used to
laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that
the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid
bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this
"Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical
examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic
theology.
As if on cue, the same day's New York Times included this, in a follow-up
piece on the weekend's busted terror plots in Britain:
In the past, some Muslim leaders have said Britain's military
actions in Islamic countries, notably Iraq and Afghanistan, has
made it vulnerable to attack from disaffected members of its own
Muslim minority of around 1.6 million. But [Prime Minister Gordon]
Brown seemed focused more on blaming Al Qaeda.
The Daily Express, another London tabloid, reports meanwhile that Brown "has
banned ministers from using the word 'Muslim' in connection with the terrorism
crisis." While they're at it, they should try not to think of an elephant.
--
The trouble with American journalism, in short, isn't that it's too skeptical,
but that it's too willing to throw skepticism to the wind when it suits the
agenda of proclaiming every war a Vietnam and every Republican president a
Nixon.
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