London bombs - a further thought

Of course, it is important to emphasize that my experience was a minor inconvenience compared with the suffering of the families of those killed and of those who have been injured. My thoughts and prayers go out to them.

London’s history is full of fire and violence, as Peter Ackroyds books about London history show. Today’s attacks will become part of that ever growing history, just as the blitz is part of London’s identity.

Now the debates will begin about who carried out these outrages. Were they al-Qaeda operatives? People from outside the UK or home grown terrorists? Who else would they have been? Very unlikely to have been the IRA. The pattern is al-Qaeda. What relation does this bear to the G8 summit in Gleneagles? To the choice of London as the Olympic city for 2012?

This is from the BBC news website:

The BBC has located an Islamist website that has published a 200-word statement issued by an organisation saying it carried out the London bombings.

The organisation calls itself the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda [literally the base] of Jihad Organisation in Europe.

The group is previously unknown.

The website has previously carried statements purporting to be from al-Qaeda. It is not possible to verify such claims published on the web.

This is the full text of the statement.

“In the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate, may peace be upon the cheerful one and undaunted fighter, Prophet Muhammad, God’s peace be upon him.

“Nation of Islam and Arab nation: Rejoice for it is time to take revenge against the British Zionist Crusader government in retaliation for the massacres Britain is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan. The heroic mujahideen have carried out a blessed raid in London. Britain is now burning with fear, terror and panic in its northern, southern, eastern, and western quarters.

“We have repeatedly warned the British Government and people. We have fulfilled our promise and carried out our blessed military raid in Britain after our mujahideen exerted strenuous efforts over a long period of time to ensure the success of the raid.

“We continue to warn the governments of Denmark and Italy and all the Crusader governments that they will be punished in the same way if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. He who warns is excused.

“God says: ‘You who believe: If ye will aid (the cause of) Allah, He will aid you, and plant your feet firmly.’”

I’m just watching Newsnight. Tony Benn is trying to put the blame on the British and American governments for the existence for al-Qaeda, and Zaki Badawi denies that al-Qaeda exists as anything more than as a loosely linked movement and has no particular link to Bin Laden. Both seem to me to be wrong.

Clearly people are interpreting today’s events in terms of their own ideologies and opinions. We shall have to wait for the police and security forces to complete their investigations, but I have no doubt that Islamists carried out the attacks - in ways that will undoubtedly have horrified my very good (and moderate) Muslim friends, such as Imam Sajid.