Welcome once again to the Britblog thingie, your list of the poststhat you think should be brought to everyone’s attention. You can make your nominations for next week by emailing the URL to britblog AT gmail DOT com. Just whatever…

This site ( http://www.iraqanalysis.org/info/55 ) is worth saving if (like me) you’re totally sad and you want to keep track of Opinion polls in Iraq.

I was being a jerk. I only said that because people like jOnz love to elevate their token Arabs or Muslims depending on what point they are trying to make not realizing that Muslims are all the same be they in London or Baghdad. I say that not because I believe it but due to the inconsistency with which Muslims are dealt by his ilk gives that impression so long as they can drive their point home.

Surely if Muslims in Europe hate democracy, they hate it in Iraq as well. That having been said I have to ask why is the Coalition of the Willing still there? Sometimes it suits their agenda to nationalize Muslim people which is why I remind them of who these people really are: Iraqi=Muslims.

Muslims love to fight each other more than non Muslims. Really there is nothing more threatening to us then each other. A non Muslim is easily dimissed but another Muslim poses serious religious conundrums for us. Dam those Muslims.

I think bringing on Hamza Yusuf, Tariq Ramadan or Shami Chakrabarti might have been a more interesting move given the circumstances. I remember listening to Azzam Tammimi at a conference in London a few years ago, and he began to cry when talking about the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands of the Israel Army, that he had witnessed firsthand. He’s just very emotional on this issue, it seems like he’s not thinking straight. It seemed that he was doing his level best to be a tactical politician with his evasive approach to answering questions about suicide bombers….but then how can he and Bukhari be mirror images of each other, when one condones suicide bombings, and the other does not. That seems like a pretty big ideological gap to me.

I did think Asghar Bukhari’s final comment… that young Muslims should learn and be equipped with the ability to make peaceful changes in their country through democratic means was a positive step in re-shifting the focus of this ‘extremism’ label on the alienated and disenfranchised British Asian Youth who seem permenantly locked out of the political process of this country. I expected him to say “Blair, Resign!” but what he did say turned out to be much more credible.

“76% of Iraqis think it was right to remove Saddam. But they’re easy to forget aren’t they?”

But 24% didnt think Saddam should have been removed and like all stats that exist to describe Muslims it is always important to brandish the minority view. BTW they arent Iraqis they are Muslim same as the ones you have in Britian.

Iraqi’s are understandably MOST bothered about terrorism and crime – what do you think a sudden vacuum of power would do? Get a grip matron.

Among recent polls, Iraqis rated withdrawal of coalition forces from Iraq a distant third, the top priority of just 9 percent of Iraqis.

Withdrawal was level with fixing the economy and job creation. 85 percent listed security as one of the top three most important issues.

No mention of imperialist overlords either.

In fact, I think that western countries are streets ahead in their civil liberties and social justice compared to most Muslim countries.

When Muslims begin to question the nasty goings on in Muslim countries, we come across a lot of complications. Say I were to decide that the Saudi Government has been using its petro-dollars and prestige in order to promote the most vicious racist ideologies and theologies. The kind that you and I both worry about, it can lead into a lot of disgust also with the foreign policy of the Government you consider to be your own.

If you happen to be upset by bombing of non-British people, just as we are by 7/7 bombings, then you notice that on side takes some atrocities seriously while carrying out others and vice versa. A stand against terrorism can’t then satisfy either side. And neither should it.

But I think such people are not visible to you because few of us make the jump to say “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” and make an open alliance with possibly equally frightened western politicians. And, although you will probably see this as some sort of devious apologetics, this is not because of any moral high-mindedness, but because there is a lot of fear also of the agenda of western politicians. They genuinely feel their lives are as expendable to both sides – looking for any sign of heterodoxy so that they can express their hatred on us.

If you are looking for unequivocal support for your worldview, you will find it from some, but not as many Muslims as you would like. Muslims who confront the sects which preach hate and support terrorists generally do not feel they are doing it on behalf of a beseiged western society. In my experience they ususally feel just as alienated from what they perceive as western imperialism and its gory consequences and want to oppose that just as much.

I’m not haw-hawing extremism. Just saying that Blair knows how to turn it on its head when he wants to use it his political advantage. So he legitimises his foreign policy by equating its detractors with Muslim extrmists, exclusively.

Have you ever seen other communities blowing up trains, buses and then having a considerable minority of that community justifying or understanding such actions? And don’t we expect certain White areas to fight racism by shunning its more extremist elements?

“And on top of that, since when did Muslims just get divided into moderates and extremists?”

Didn’t you say there is a fine line between racists and non-racists? Shouldn’t there be a similar line between moderates and extremists? I believe that’s the only line you need to define.

And do you really think that I am either not aware of the wickedness of extreme right wingers, or that I would sulk at the suggestion that they be repudiated, or that the existence of the Soho bomber in any way renders the threat from Islamists inconsequential or irrelevant? So because of what happened in 1999, Muslim extremism should not be confronted or named and repudiated? That is fatuous.