Muslims United

When I heard of the "not in my name" campaign being launched by various Muslim groups in the UK I was, naturally, suspicious- were they really going to out and out renounce Islamic terrorism? Were we looking at a new era of the silent majority of peaceful Muslims speaking out against the violence committed n the name of Allah? Were we finally going to hear a national campaign that renounced jihad?

The Muslim communities across Britain are united in condemning the attempted bombings in London and Glasgow.

Well, it's certainly off to a good start- and it continues in a similar positive manner-

We are united with the rest of the country at this critical time and are determined to work together to avert any such attacks targeting our fellow citizens, property and country.

But it's around here that things start to go a little awry-

Islam forbids the killing of innocent people. We reject any heinous attempts to link such abhorrent acts to the teachings of Islam.

They also quote- partially- 5:32 (killing one is like killing mankind)- which is a highly misleading thing to do; aren't Muslim spokesmen always complaining about people taking verses of the Koran out of context? The whole of the verse, and the one that follows immediately after it give a rather different impression- here's the main part of 5:32- "whosoever killeth a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he had killed all mankind." So there is no blanket ban on killing- and I'm sure that jihadis have a very borad opinion of what exactly "corruption" entails. And here's what follows it- "The only reward of those who make war upon Allah and His messenger and strive after corruption in the land will be that they will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land." Quite a huge difference between that and "Thou shalt not kill" isn't there? And that's without even going into the whole "who are innocent" debate- civilians, it has to be said, are not always viewed as innocents.

Note too that while they condemn the bombings they do seem to be more upset at attempts to link jihadist violence with Islam. The ad then goes into some discussion about not targeting Muslims with prejudice or discrimination.

We call on our government to work towards a just and lasting peace in areas of conflict around the world and to take the lead in helping eliminate the injustices and grievances that foment division and nurture violence.

And here at last we have the typical veiled threat common amongst Muslim spokespeople condemning acts of terrorism in the West- change your ways or there will be more violence. Evidently they believe that British foreign policy is to blame for these attacks.