Manchester

No Muslim, Bruv

I was planning to comment on last week’s paper but we have been overtaken by the terrible tragedy in Manchester. It is a city I love, having lived there for four years. So I want to record my condolences for all the families and friends who are suffering, all who died or are in hospital, and solidarity with all the people of Manchester.

It is important to make a sharp distinction between Muslims and terrorists. Muslims aren’t terrorists and terrorists aren’t Muslims. Of course terrorists might dress up as Muslims and even pray five times a day. It isn’t fooling me. Neither am I fooled when fascists fire bomb a mosque and call themselves ‘Christians’. As a young man shouted out during a terror knife attack in London “You ain’t no Muslim Bruv”.

So we have to be in solidarity with Manchester and with all Muslims whilst condemning this and all terror attacks on people. It is important to say that these terrorists are like fish that need water to swim in. If we can drain all the water they are left flapping about on the bottom of the lake. Calling terrorists “Muslims” is like filling up the lake with fresh water.

These terrorists are not Muslims and they aren’t going to heaven. For this reason we need to be in solidarity with all Muslims, who the fascists and the right wing Tory press are going to target. I would add that Muslims don’t need to start apologising any more than anybody else.

But we cannot duck the question as to why this stupid moron was so filled with hatred as to do such an inhumane anti-Muslim act. We all know the answer even if nobody likes to mention it. It is not an excuse just a fact of life. The UK has been waging war in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria since 2003. Fourteen years later the UK remains in a state of permanent warfare. The UK is dropping massive bombs on Syria and Iraq right now. Some will say that Britain drops bombs humanely, only killing terrorists and not innocent children. If you can believe that you will fall for anything.

More tragedies like Manchester are not going to stop until there is peace in the Middle East. At the top of the list are the Palestinians who are often forgotten. The British bombing of Syria and Iraq is part of the problem not the solution. So don’t just blame the last Labour and Tory governments but Labour MPs like ‘bomber Benn’ who made one of the finest speeches on the need for massive bombing in the Middle East that the House of Commons has ever cheered.

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