I have tried to keep away from talking about the London bombings and the religious zealotry behind them but over the past four weeks I have been saddened to hear the many, many comments made by UK Muslim leaders, ‘respected members of their community’, Islamic teachers and the like.

They have been paraded on TV news programmes one after the other, interviewed in the press and quoted just about everywhere. And to a man they condemn the the use of violence, claim to the world that these barbarians are not true followers of Islam and state, quite confidently, that the UK Muslim population as a whole does not support the use of violence.

And then, they nearly always undermine the whole statement with the word – ‘but….’.

And in the light of that, this item, Hizb’ut Tahrir Airbrushes Racism from its Past, posted on Harry’s Place yesterday did not make comfortable reading.

I have to admit I was listening to BBC Radio 4 late night news while shaving so I just might have misheard. But I thought I heard that Osman Hussain’s Italian Lawyer, representing him at his extradition hearings in Rome, claim that he was not a terrorist but that he did what he did as a protest.

Now, if that is what he has said, then first up – surely it’s a confession that he was the man at Shepherds Bush with an unexploded bomb in his rucksack. If he was only ‘protesting’ then what was the point of the bomb? I’m struggling here to see the difference between someone who blows themselves up in a crowded tube train as an act of terrorism and someone who blows themselves up in a crowded tube train as an act of protest.

I filed this item under ‘Religion’ because I don’t yet have a ‘Stupidity’ category. And in all fairness I might have misheard. I was shaving after all.

I am rather short. I assume that this is a genetic trait. Being short does not bar me from very much. I might not have made a great basketball player but I am not barred from playing. I am not actively discriminated against because my genes describe me as short.

I also tend to be overweight. I have had this tendency since birth as have other members of my family who share some of my DNA. It is not simply overindulgence. Perhaps NASA would have turned me down for astronaut training as limited Apollo capsule space must preclude dumpy people but I don’t believe this genetic tendency has ever caused others to consider me abnormal.

I know someone who has some serious, life-threanening allergies. I might be wrong but I assume this is also part of their genetic make-up – an aberration or malfunction. But again I am not aware this has ever caused them to be actively discriminated against.

In fact we all know people who stray from some undefined norm due to a glitch in their building blocks. And my guess is that the Christian Establishment welcomes them with open arms spewing righteous clichés about us all being God’s children and how we are all equal in His eyes.

Unless, of course, like a nephew of mine, they happen to be gay. Then that same Christian Establishment echo’s with passionate and hypocritical bigotry and blatant discrimination.

Picked this up on the BBC tonight:

An Indian woman who was allegedly raped by her father-in-law is now being ordered by a Muslim council of community elders to marry him.
The council says under Islamic law the rape has nullified her marriage, according to media reports.

And her current husband, son of this rapist? She has to relate to him as a mother to a son. I thought I’d heard it all but this is award winning. Thankfully local police, media and politicians don’t agree – along with the civilised world – and charges are being bought. How about some charges against the elders council?