Today the United Kingdom reflects on 7/7. Diana West has a must read column which opens with these paragraphs.
Just in time for the one-year anniversary of 7/7, a poll conducted for The Times of London indicates that 13 percent of British Muslims believe that the four Islamic suicide bombers who murdered 52 people in London last July should be regarded as "martyrs."
With a Muslim population in Britain estimated at 1.6 million, this means that some 208,000 British Muslims regard these killers with what can only be described as a worshipful attitude, which is despicable. But Mother England, it seems, is home to an awful lot of despicable people.
One of them, surely, is Anjem Choudary, who made related news this week. Mr. Choudary is a former leader of al-Mujahiroun, a defunct, jihad-inciting group, whose venomous pronouncements on Islamic supremacy have earned him a strange prominence in the British media. He refuses to condemn the 7/7 attacks, says Muslims shouldn't help police combat jihad terror and advocates sharia (Islamic law) for Britain. During a BBC "Newsnight" appearance this year, the host asked Mr. Choudary why he didn't simply move to a sharia state like Iran.
"Who says you own Britain, anyway?" Mr. Choudary replied. "Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah ... If I go to the jungle, I'm not going to live like the animals, I'm going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life." (HT: Michelle Malkin)
Back on May 14th, I posted material on Melanie Phillip's book Londonistan. Steve Emerson subsequently conducted an interview with Melanie Phillips which contains the following exchange:
Emerson: Do any authentically moderate Islamic organizations or leaders exist?
Phillips: No. There ARE truly moderate British Muslims, but they are a frightened and powerless minority within a minority, and to date they have no representative institutions.
Update: Daniel Pipes (7/12/06) has yet more extensive coverage on British polls related to Muslim sentiment, Sharia law, Jews, etc. Concluding sentence:
In sum, over half of British Muslims want Islamic law and 5 percent endorse violence to achieve that end. These results demonstrate that Britain's potential terrorists live in a highly nurturing community.