London Bridge Terror Attack - Ignoring the Problem


On November 29th London suffered another terror attack at the hands of an Islamic Jihadi - a fact which seems carefully omitted from every report on the incident. Usman Khan attack began at 13:58 GMT inside Fishmongers' Hall. Fishmonger Company chief executive Toby Williamson had this to say about the incident:



We now know that Khan was arrested on terrorism charges in 2010. After serving eight years in prison, he was released on parole. On November 29, the convicted terrorist went on a stabbing spree. The London Bridge terror attack ended with Khan and two others dead.
The resultant outcry in the context of a General Election campaign in the UK has led to the expected calls for locking up terrorists and throwing away they key, the death penalty.
The left blame cuts to services like the police, courts, probation and prisons:
The right say the problem is letting convicted criminals out too early:
Honestly I think that both arguments are wrong. The argument that having more police would make a difference is patently nonsense. The fact is you can't stop random individual attacks like this if individuals are determined to carry them out. Simply locking people up for indeterminate amounts of time is expensive and, frankly, counter-productive, because all the evidence is that the vast majority of radicalisation actually takes place in prison.

I can see the argument that investing in rehabilitation would make a difference, if there was any evidence that rehabilitation was working - but there's not.

So what should we do?

I think the problem is largely the progressive attitude towards Islam as a reasonable religion. The problem with criticising Islam for Catholics today is that it is almost like a turkey voting for Christmas. In the religiously intolerant atmosphere of the post-modern secular UK, all religions are considered the same, despite the reality that Western civilisation was built by Christianity. These are painful truths for citizens of the UK who like to live in a peaceful, tolerant society. So am I arguing against a freedom of religion? Of course not. I am arguing for a frank and honest discussion about religion and what action certain beliefs produce.

Khan was a radical Muslim. There are radical Catholics too, sure. Mother Teresa for example - St Maximillian Kolbe is another good example. Spot the difference?

Sure not all Muslims support terrorism, but most Muslims don't know what Islam teaches about terrorism. If a radicalised person hears from the British government that Islam is actually a religion of peace, is he going to believe the British government, the prison service, or his imam, Mohammed and Al qu'ran? You see, he knows what his religion teaches about these things from more authentic sources and he's not going to be convinced that non Muslims know more than his sources of radicalisation.

So what do we do?

The answer is that we offer a proper, objective critique of Islam using Islamic sources that Muslims recognise. Our culture of everyone from politicians to pop stars supporting Islam as a religion of peace in a vacuum of real understanding is what creates this threat.

The danger is that critiquing Islam promotes intolerance of religion in the culture referred to above. That is a risk, but I am prepared to defend my Catholic faith against such attacks with facts. I believe that holding Islam to account for its specific teachings is the best way to combat future crimes such as the one Khan committed on the 29th November.

In this video, David Wood explains the issues clearly:


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Problem is the Bishops - Dr Janet Smith.

Image
  Dr Janet Smith is a true gift to the Church. She is an American classicist and philosopher, and former professor of moral theology at the Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. She is now retired and works helping victims of the sex abuse crisis where she does amazing work. It's my great pleasure to count her among my friends and I can assure you she loves Jesus and His Church with an incredible depth and honesty. She is wonderful company especially in that she is as sharp as a tack but also extremely warm and funny. This is a talk she gave recently at the Coalition for Cancelled Priests Conference at the end of June in Chicago. It's a must listen talk if you want to know the painful reality of the corruption in the Catholic hierarchy, corruption of all kinds, sexual, financial and spiritual/ theological. Having defended the Church during the paedophile crisis she was devastated when, after the Dallas Charter, the McCarrick scandal broke. She addresses the critici
Read more

Real Life Catholics on BBC TV defend Church Teaching on Contraception.

Image
This morning on BBC TV Sunday Morning Live there was a good debate inspired by Melinda Gates (who identifies as Catholic) comments about the pope potentially changing doctrine on contraception. The Catholic contributors were Fr Paddy McCafferty, Clare Short and Obianuju Ekeocha. I think they did really well. Uju's direction is very interesting and easily wrong foots those who want to impose western ideas of morality on Africans in an imperialistic way. Interesting that the presenter agrees with her on this. Fr Paddy gave a great account of his experience as a priest. He was compassionate, realistic and honest, while upholding the value and importance of the doctrine. Clare said she had experience of both ways and the Catholic way is better by far. I thought that was awesome! I especially liked her focus on equality and bringing the responsibility of both husband & wife into the discussion. Watch out for the bit where the other lady says "Pope Francis has ind
Read more

New Head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

Image
I can hardly bring myself to write about yesterday's announcement that Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Victor Manuel Fernández to be the new head of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith replacing Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, S.J. (now 79) who was previously the secretary to Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller. Fernández is certainly one of the Pope's men, his whole career has been crafted and guided by Jorge Bergoglio. He headed the Faculty of Theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina (CUA) and then on December 15, 2009, the then Cardinal Bergoglio appointed Fernandez as rector of the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina. However, much to the frustration of Cardinal Bergoglio, Fernandez was not able to take the oath of office until May 20, 2011, after he had answered objections to his appointment raised by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which assessed concerns about the orthodoxy of certain elements of his scholarship
Read more