Blowing Innocent People Up, And Proud
Haroon Siddique writes for The Guardian of the home video made by the ringleader of the July 7 London bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan:
In the footage, the Edgware Road bomber sits on a bed at his wife's family home, cradling his daughter and softly telling her that what he was doing was "for the sake of Islam"....During the farewell message to his daughter, recorded on November 16 2004, Khan expresses regret that he will miss out on watching her grow up, but tells her: "I have to do this thing for our future and it will be for the best, inshallah, in the long run."
The video was among a variety of items given by Khan's wife, Hasina Patel, to a friend, Faiza Rehman, who handed it to police in the aftermath of the atrocity.
The jury was told there was further footage, not played to the court, in which Khan said: "Be strong, learn to fight - fighting is good. Be mummy's best friend. Take care of mummy - you can both do things together like fighting and stuff."
Aww, how touching. Can you imagine a parent -- Jewish, Christian, or atheist -- who would be proud to raise a child to be a murderer?
Comments
Now, sometimes Jared Diamond can be a little too lefty for my tastes, but this article (from A&LD again) describes an attitude like this in some detail.
Note particularly the passage about how people who die merely of diseases are forgotten.
Posted by: Crid at April 24, 2008 11:36 AM
Thanks for the link, Crid. Very interesting piece -- and the point about disease not being an immortality producer I think is a very relevant ones.
Muslim culture isn't a culture that fosters personal achievement or the individualism necessary for that. In fact, you could say Muslim cultures are predisposed against invention, science, and other kinds of advancement -- perhaps explaining why so many Muslims take the death cult approach to making a difference in the world. Not an excuse in the slightest - but an explanation for why, as religions go, Islam is the worst.
Posted by: Amy Alkon at April 24, 2008 12:16 PM
I think that's true, but Islam and the wretchedness of the cultures it lives in seem to be mutually corrupting, and it can be tough to say which is which.
Like this: Imagine the Muslim primitive of your nightmares in whatever country you find him, making his (meager) living and bringing whatever leadership to his family that you imagine he has to offer, all while devoutly praying four times a day etc. Now imagine his neighbor, who happens to be Godless and for whatever reason is able to get around without all the usual gestures of piety.
If it came down to practicalities, you'd still hate both those guys. In terms of how they treated women, how they conducted their businesses, and how they regarded the interests of other people, they'd be indistinguishably wretched.
I'd bet.
Posted by: Crid at April 24, 2008 12:38 PM
Amy,
I would suspect that many who read your blog view you as very liberal, which many would tend to associate with being "left wing". They must be quite confused then why you take such a hard line when it comes to militant Islam. The lack of comments on columns such as this one compared to your "usual" columns support this thesis.
Frankly though, I think you're the one who has morally consistent views, not those who give Islamic oppression a pass because ... well, I've never really been sure why.
Here in Vancouver, where I live, I have very left-leaning acquaintances all around me, each describing themselves as "very liberal". Yet if anyone - be it you or our Conservative Prime Minister - speak out against oppression in the Muslim world or Africa or China - then these same liberal folks are so quickly to condemn such comments as "right wing hate speech".
It's a very curious phenomenon that should be closely examined by psychologists!!
Robert Werner
P.S. Your column still rocks, after the year or so that I've been reading it. You're like the literary equivalent of Dennis Miller on the radio.
P.S.2. Speaking of which, when are we going to be seeing the Amy Alkon Show on radio or TV or even the Internet?!
Posted by: Robert Werner at April 25, 2008 12:29 AM
Thanks so much, Robert. PS I'm no longer in a paper up there in Vancouver. Feel free to request me (to the features editor at the daily or the editor and/or publisher at the alt weekly - the Westender, for example, which used to run me). That's how I earn my living, when you read me in a paper!
As far as being considered "liberal," I don't think regular readers of my blog see me that way. I'm fiscally conservative, largely libertarian (but not for open borders), and a "personal responsibilitarian."
Posted by: Amy Alkon at April 25, 2008 5:29 AM
"Aww, how touching. Can you imagine a parent -- Jewish, Christian, or atheist -- who would be proud to raise a child to be a murderer?"
well, maybe 20 centuries ago...
Posted by: SwissArmyD at April 25, 2008 5:05 PM
