Let’s say someone offered this stupid, callous and offensive observation on Mohamed Merah’s terrorist murder spree in Toulouse in 2012:
Politically, he was a young man adrift, imbued neither with the values of Islam, nor driven by racism and anti-Semitism. Young, disoriented, he shot at targets whose prominence and meaning seem to have been chosen based on little more than their visibility.
Yes, it’s Tariq Ramadan. And you will remember that Merah deliberately targeted Jews for murder, including children.
Brother Tariq added this:
Where we might have hoped for a true debate on political issues, we must now be content with trapeze artists and jugglers, with illusionists, and with clever and cynical attempts to exploit a tragedy.
Imagine someone saying in the immediate aftermath of Anders Breivik’s atrocities that “one might have hoped Norway would now hold a proper debate about immigration and integration”. It would be an utterly foul reaction.
Now consider a woman who looks at the world of so many Toulouses and is concerned. She says:
Across the world, people are being singled out and hounded out simply for the faith they follow or the beliefs they hold. The persecution of people because of their faith or belief has, I believe, become a global crisis. I want to make sure we have the best advice available.
That woman is Baroness Warsi, speaking about her new “Foreign Office group on Freedom of Religion or Belief”.
Among others, she has appointed Brother Tariq to advise her.
What an idiot.
