Islamism

A Bad Bet

Who remembers this Azzam “Kaboom” Tamimi article, entitled “I bet you it will turn out to be a hoax”:

I have a feeling that all the Muslims detained in connection with the recent police operation to foil and alleged plot are innocent and will soon be proven so. I also suspect that the entire episode has been deemed, despite its enormous cost, to be of utility to a government that is increasingly out of touch with reality and seriously short of public support and sympathy. I wonder whether this was also intended to smear the image of Islam and the Muslims at the time when the entire world can see that they are the victims of a most unjust world order dominated by the USA and the UK who both support and sponsor Israeli terrorism against Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon and who both oppress the Muslim peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq through direct occupation.

And this TV appearance?

Well, if he actually put his money where his mouth is, I bet Tamimi is short of a few quid today:

Three men have been found guilty of plotting to kill thousands of people by blowing up planes from London to North America with home-made liquid bombs.

A Woolwich Crown Court jury convicted Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, of conspiring to activate bombs disguised as drinks.

UPDATE

Dmatr in the comments below draws our attention to the BBC report on the trial, in which Dominic Casciani concludes as follows:

Why did all these men turn to violence?

The reason can be found in their own words, writings and martyrdom videos; a simple and seething anger over British and American foreign policy, and an overwhelming belief that Muslims were its helpless victims.

Let’s hear it from Abdullah Ali, the ringleader of this plot:

I’m doing this coz of the rewards, the big rewards that Allah promises those who step from this path and, inshallah, become martyrs. And the best of those rewards for me is the guarantee of Jannah [paradise] for myself, my family, and those who are close to me.

And on top of this is to punish and humiliate the kuffar. And to teach them a lesson that they will never forget. To tell them that we, the Muslims, are people of honour, we are people of Izza, we are brave, we are not cowards. And enough is enough.

We warned you so many times to get out of [Allah’s?] land, but you have persisted in trying to humiliate us, kill us, and destroy us. Sheikh Osama warned you many times to leave our land or you will be destroyed and now the time has come for you to be destroyed. And you have nothing to expect but floods of martyrdom operations, volcanos of anger and revenge erupting among your capitals.

The BBC reporter simply ignores and discounts the theology – because he either doesn’t understand it, or doesn’t take it seriously – and gives a pat explanation of it in terms of ‘foreign policy’.

It is a remarkable thing really – we’ve all encountered it. It just is beyond the comprehension of atheists and moderate theists that when fanatics talk about killing for God, that is really how they see the world.