A couple of days ago, “Lenin” actually said something I agreed with when remarking on the press coverage of anti-Muslim violence in the wake of the London bombings. The use of “revenge” or even “backlash” by some hacks to describe, for example, the brutal murder of Kamal Raza Butt, is inaccurate. Such acts are committed by racists and bigots who were racist and bigoted long before July 7th. The bombs in London provided another excuse, nothing more.
Of course, the corollary of this is that we should have no truck with those who make the same claim of the London bombings: that they were “revenge” for and/or ‘backlash” from Iraq. Yet that is precisely the claim of Mundher al-Adhami writing in Saturday’s Guardian. There can be no dispute about this because the title given to his nauseating screed is:
”Not Hate, Vengeance”.
His piece begins with the usual clearing-of-throat lament for the vapourised, immolated, decapitated, disabled and psychologically destroyed victims of the London bombs, but we’re quickly introduced to the al-Adhami world of causality:
Attacks there, as those in London, are not about hating anybody’s way of life, but straightforward revenge: revenge for Falluja and al-Qaim – and for Palestine and Afghanistan, which have been subsumed in them.
Nothing remotely unusual about this, of course, as anybody who has listened to George Galloway, the Muslim Association of Britain or read Dilpazier Aslam during the last week-and-a-half, can testify. Mr. Al-Adhami does go one step further than most, however, and it’s what he doesn’t say in his final paragraph that deserves most attention:
The British public have deep sympathy and understanding of the folly of the Iraq war, and will not condone any backlash. On the other hand, they have not yet made their mark as the people of Spain and others did, forcing their governments to withdraw from Bush’s evil “coalition of the willing”. And they should.
“Or else”, I presume?
In its selfless drive to represent all views, controversial and conventional, is there anything the Guardian won’t publish? Can one imagine space being given to a far-right commentator who remarked that the brutal “revenge” murder of Kamal Raza Butt was committed by poor tortured souls unmotivated by hate and weren’t such acts inevitable given the atrocities in London? Moreover, what exactly did the Muslim community expect given their unwillingness to reign in their own?
Neither can I.