The conviction of three British Muslim men of a plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, and of a fourth for a related conspiracy, has told the world how close it came to reliving the horrific trauma of 9/11 when four American airliners were used as flying bombs. It is not clear how many aircraft the British conspirators hoped to bring down, but the death toll could have exceeded the 2,993 (including 19 terrorists) who died in those 2001 attacks. As happened after the so-called 7/7 and 21/7 attacks in London in 2005, this case draws attention to a small number of very disaffected young British men of Pakistani origin who invoke their religion to justify mass attacks on innocent people. Leaders of the Muslim community welcomed the verdicts, as did many ordin-ary British Muslims, but undoubtedly there are still potential terrorists at large. A significant fringe of Muslims in Britain either sympathise with them or are at least ambivalent.
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An Editorial from the Tablet: Respect difference, teach unity
The conviction of three British Muslim men of a plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, and of a fourth for a related conspiracy, has told the world how close it came to reliving the horrific trauma of 9/11 when four American airliners were used as flying bombs. It is not clear how many aircraft the British conspirators hoped to bring down, but the death toll could have exceeded the 2,993 (including 19 terrorists) who died in those 2001 attacks. As happened after the so-called 7/7 and 21/7 attacks in London in 2005, this case draws attention to a small number of very disaffected young British men of Pakistani origin who invoke their religion to justify mass attacks on innocent people. Leaders of the Muslim community welcomed the verdicts, as did many ordin-ary British Muslims, but undoubtedly there are still potential terrorists at large. A significant fringe of Muslims in Britain either sympathise with them or are at least ambivalent.
Read it all.