Many thanks to everybody who sent links for opinions on the London bombings - it was a very enriching experience, all the articles having something to take away from them.

I list them here - I recommend you read as many as you can. The (small) silver lining to come out of the bombings is that a lot of people (including me) have had their preconceptions and prejudices shaken, learned much and have changed their outlooks accordingly. That such horror has led to this expansion of consciousness - that the bombings got so many people thinking and thinking hard - is just another heartbreaker in a sea of them.

In interests of fairness, and to avoid any suggestion of judgement from me, the pieces are presented in alphabetical order by blog name. If anybody has anything more, please feel free to link to them in the comments.

Phil Edwards at Actually Existing: The spreading chestnut tree

We can see all these traps looming for politicised Muslims who go down the route of ‘moderation’: the need for self-proclaimed ‘moderates’ to prove themselves by finding ‘extremists’ to denounce; the impossible choice between being denounced by New Labour and signing up to a New Labour agenda; the power of political blackmail which this strategy hands to a watchful gatekeeper (”I thought you moderates were opposed to Islamist terrorists?”). The underlying problem is that this strategy is inherently divisive and destabilising.

Curious Hamster at A Big Stick and a Small Carrot: Apologists, Bush, Blair, and the Bombs

Are our leaders protecting us and the rest of the world in the best way possible? For me the answer is no, and I must therefore conclude that Bush and Blair are also culpable in some sense for last Thursday’s attacks. I make no apology for that.

Antipholus Papps: Remember

It hasn’t changed our way of life. 7/7. We can still brand it and sell it. You need a good brand to compete in the increasingly crowded warmongering market. A good brand needs staying power and immediate recognition. It needs to be dynamic to drive the consumer into action.

Quarsan at BlairWatch: A War Against Cliche

How do we get out of this? Firstly we must declare a war against cliche. running out the same tired old cliches do not educate, enlighten or inform. We need sober analysis not abuse.

Tim Ireland at Bloggerheads: I refuse to surrender

1. I make no apologies for my statements last Thursday, and do not plan to use a “Wahhh! But they’re doing it, too!” defence… but there are few things that need to be brought to your attention.
2. I am not calling for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. That would be an incredibly stupid thing to do.
3. I have never denied the actual threat of terrorism. My position has always been that the threat exists - which is what makes Bush and Blair’s misrepresentation, manipulation and mismanagement of it so incredibly dangerous.
4. I urge you not to deny your fear.
5. I blame Tony Blair.

The Devil’s Kitchen: Holding a pier glass up to life: a reflection.

Both the soldiers who have died in the Middle East and the commuters who died in London will not have died in vain if we can make Iraq work. If we drop the ball, pull out and leave the Iraqi people to the tender mercies of Sharia law, then we will have failed, and the terrorists will have won.

Nosemonkey at Europhobia: London bombs: Blame the BNP

If you were a young Muslim, British born, being told by a party that professes to be the party of Britain, of the nation, that you were not and never could be British, how would you feel? Would you feel included in society? Would you feel any love for your fellow countrymen? Would you even consider them your fellow countrymen?

Jarndyce at Fair Vote Watch: On responsibility for murder

Those responsible for mass murder on London’s transport system last week are the individuals who planted the bombs, those who harboured and supported them, those nihilists who encouraged and egged them on.

Paul at Free Speed Nation: War

As I write the death toll today in London stands at 37 (this may include 4 suicide bombers). Using the minimum figure on Iraq Body Count tells us that, using a mean number of civilian deaths per day, 37 civilian deaths have occurred in Iraq every one and a half days for the last two and a half years.

Oscar Wildebeest at Gnus of the World: Fuck Osama Bin Laden

You’re giving your lives to promote the vanity of an obscenely wealthy Saudi renegade who sees himself as some kind of lunatic Messiah and who has sacrificed his humanity and morality on the altar of grandeur. There is no heaven with virgins serving you wine into eternity…

Honourable Fiend: Praxis

You want them stopped? Don’t play. ID cards? Get stuffed. Millions of people walking barefoot through airports? Not bloody likely. Failing to round up the morons who’ve already started beating up Sikhs in Bradford and sending them to jail for a decade or more? Under no circumstances.

James Woolcott: One City, One World, One America (Suggested by Nick Barlow)

For months, we’ve been hearing and reading that Brits no longer discriminate between average Americans and the policies of our government–that the reelection of Bush has made them hold us in something of the same contempt they hold him. Well, they have good reason, and we keep furnishing them with better reasons all the time.

David at Kitty Killer: Being dissapointed: Offical and Unoffical reactions to Muslims after the London Bombs

An ex Met Police commissoner claimed only a few days ago that 3,000 suicide bombers were waiting to attack the UK - what community does he think they come from? Rebecca Wade asked the government to round everyone up who is suspect and put them in a camp. What community should we start looking in, Rebecca? Shall we just round up every slightly angry Muslim and claim they are not Islamic to make ourselves feel better?

Matt Sellers: Violence for Violence?

How can we love those who blow up tube trains and buses, or those that order the destruction of whole cities? These people are enemies of humanity as a whole, but Jesus tells us to love them - I’m not sure I can do it, but I do know that until people learn to do it, “Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars”.

Ken at Militant Moderate: Killing In The Name Of

Because unless we can work together to bring about a common understanding, more London-style bombings are inevitable. And part of that working together involves a more strident line from the Muslim leaders in Britain. Whilst Muslims are always the put-upon victims, resentment will grow. The problem of suicide bombing is rooted within the Muslim community, and it’s going to be up to them, above all, to help stamp it out.

Richard at Militant Moderate: Streets of London

What is vital now is that a programme of aggressive support for human rights overseas continues. This will mean challenging state sponsors of terrorism, and also the corrupt pro-Western regimes such as Saudi Arabia, where the majority of 9/11 bombers came from.

Will Howells at No Geek is an Island: Another form of authority

The killing of innocent civilians is as authoritarian as one can be, whether as the actions of a dictatorial government or of madmen hell bent on causing terror. The British people don’t like being dictated to, as the bombers are sure to discover. Whatever their cause, it will have only been harmed by Thursday’s attacks.

Andrew at Non-Trivial Solutions: What next?

Tricky question, isn’t it? We’re all grappling with it in the wake of the vicious mass-murder perpetrated last week. Perhaps it is easier to consider what not to do next - I’ve found it most useful to carry on as normal. To get back on the tube. To go back to work. But I’ve avoided making political hay out of all this…

Charlie Whitaker at Perfect: A moral ‘Chinese wall’

I think you can say this: to act is to influence. If the London bombers were copying the Madrid bombers - and if Al-Q’aida is a ‘franchise’ - then, sadly, we have just seen that principle in action. And the circle of influence surely extends to cover many such related acts - even as far as Iraq. To make exclusions - to excuse the invaders - is to invoke a moral difference argument, which I don’t believe a democracy can tolerate. Terrorism is either part of our society - and its ethos - or it isn’t.

Allan Scullion at Politicalog: Dear Mr Terrorist

If you have the time and are agreeable, I would like to take this opportunity to conduct a one-on-one English lesson with you.

Sheldon Rampton at PR Watch: Rhetoric vs. Reality in London

Of course, the accusation of “cheap opportunism,” along with the other name-calling directed at Galloway, is itself a cheap tactic, an example of the old rhetorical strategy known as “killing the messenger.” Rather than address the substance of Galloway’s comments, his attackers want to divert attention away from his arguments and focus instead on allegations about his character or personality.

Dave at Talk Politics: But they’re not like us, are they?

On a psychological and sociological level the question of ‘how could this happen?’ is far less important that the question of ‘how are those responsible different from us?’ - to fail to address the latter question being a source of deep discomfort as it forces us to confront out own capacity for atrocity rather than place those responsible safely on the outside of our existence and into the safe realm of ‘not-us’.

Larry at Tampon Teabag: Common Sense

Under President Allawi, Iraq is now a breeding ground for terrorists who blood themselves there, and then flock to Britain as “asylum seekers” to massacre us while we go about our daily lives. President Allawi’s Iraq is a terrorist state. It must not be allowed to persist. We must invade Iraq, again.

Upon Nothing: Why?

More importantly, rather than responding to any of Bin Laden’s pronouncements, governments should not engage in pre-emptive invasions and wars to suit their own interests but to seriously address the issues that are inflaming the world’s trouble spots. That is not to say we should negotiate with al-Qaida as such – but to cut the support he has from many in the Islamic world.

Kathy F at What Do I Know: Taking the War on Terror up the M1

Now that we know the London bombers came from Leeds, I guess we should root out terrorism at its ugly heart and bomb Leeds back to the stone age. It worked in Afghanistan, didn’t it? Then we should go invade Scotland. Yeah, that should do the trick.

Billmon at The Whiskey Bar: The Devil’s Flypaper (suggested by Jassalasca Jape)

…the more the terrorists practice their job skills in Iraq, the better they get at blowing stuff up in London, Paris, Rome and (unless we get really lucky) Boston. A whole generation of urban terrorists is receiving a superb education… at U.S. taxpayer expense.

I’d also like to link to this dialogue over at The Sharpener which does not lend itself to easy an easy summary and as such should be read in full, I think.

So, a gratifyingly mixed bag of opinions coming at the atrocity from a myriad of angles, some with humour but all with humanity.

The gauntlets are down, it seems. Thanks again to all who contributed.

Posted on July 18th, 2005 at 9:43 pm

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