There’s a rather interesting piece in the Guardian by a former member of a terrorist group in Britain. Here are several provocative lines:
When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous 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 the ‘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.
No, he is not saying that Islam necessarily leads to terrorism. Rather, his claim is that radical Islamists currently have the best theologians, that terrorism springs from their theology, and that moderate Muslims need to work seriously at presenting a theological alternative but that they are failing to do so. But read the rest of his piece to see what he is really saying.
-Sydney
Alan Schmierer