I also found this quote from a BBC article: “Meanwhile in Britain there is considerable concern over remarks made by Ijaz ul-Haq, the Pakistani Religious Affairs minister, who appears to have said that Rushdie’s knighthood should be met with suicide bombing”

I believe this is most likely the cause. You add to the fact that British muslims feel like 2nd grade citizens, though I have heard the same complaint from Indian’s who have immigrated to the UK and even those who have been born in the UK. Similar complaints have often been made by African immigrants and those who were born there. On a side note for an interesting view on what it’s like to be black in England I suggest listening to the song “Where Is Home?” by Bloc Party. The lead singer’s parents emigrated to UK from the continent of Africa.

I am friends with a girl who was born and raised for ten years in Englad. She then moved to canada and live there for several years before her family came to the US. She told me racism is a rather big problem in England. As some of you above me posted, there willl sadly be lynching incidents on anyone Asian and who made the “mistake” of walking in the wrong place at the wrong time. From what I’ve been told from reading books and talking to my friend the situation with Pakistani’s, lovingl referred to as Paki’s and Wog’s, and Indians is very similar to the debate over Mexican immigrants in the US. “They take our women, jobs, etc.” this is a serious problem in the UK. I’m bracing myself for the news of some young muslim or asian men and women to be stabbed to death by hooligans.

I am not bashing the UK when i say this but, “what did they expect when knighting Salman Rushdie?” These actions were most likely perpretrated by young men who already were in the planning stages to do such an attack or had bounced the idea around their head. When this news of the knighting broke it pushed them over the top. Obviously there are other factors that have caused this to get out of hand. As someone stated , the Uk’s involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Muslim clerics taking advantage of the freedom of speech provided in England. Christiane Amanpour made an excellent news piece on this story. This all being said, I do not think they shouldn’t have knighted Salman Rushdie. The man has recieved numerous awards for his work and we can’t let a few extremists stop us from celebrating art and literature. Perhaps the English government could have put out warnings to it’s citizens that something like Friday and Saturday’s incidents could be expected, This is further proof that our Western governments have no grasp on what the thoughts and motivations are of these young muslim people.

Now it may not be islamic terrorism but as of right now alot of the facts point to that. They have more then enough provocation and motivation to be angry. The BBC is now reporting that the attacks on both days ARE connected. No word yet if these asian men were Indonesian. they don’t need to be. Islam, during the heights of the Caliphates, was spread all over south east Asia. Time will tell what’s going on exactly but news like this makesit abundantly clear that no real progess has been made in Western/Muslim relations. I’m very worried there will never be any progress will be made,

Get our lads and lassies out of Afghanistan and Iraq and leave the good old USA to clean up it’s own mess. We were conned into this war by our leaders so I’d like to see our new PM have the balls to give G.W. Bush the two finger salute as he pulls our troops out.
We are breading more terrorists in our own country than we are overseas with this conflict. No-one here is for the war (even from the very start we didn’t want it) so we can only blame our own government if terrorists do kill more civilians on our UK streets.

I thought to myself “shit! here we go again. what’s going to happen next”.

It’s a really crazy, messed up world these days. You wonder where you can go without worrying about whether it will be a target or not. And then when they do identify a the perpetrators, well, then you wonder what the backlash might be like…

Anyway…

[quote comment="17848"]The main worry should be that some local knuckle draggers could use this as an excuse to give members of the local Asian community grief. Some of the things i’ve heard people say in the street this afternoon would turn your hair white.[/quote]

You really hit the nail on the head weem, I have to sadly agree that I’ve heard some disgusting things around town as well.

Justene, I realise everything’s caught on tape but when has being caught on tape discouraged or prevented terrorism in the past? I doubt they’ll glean anything of use from the cameras in Haymarket.

[quote comment="17848"]
The main worry should be that some local knuckle draggers could use this as an excuse to give members of the local Asian community grief. Some of the things i’ve heard people say in the street this afternoon would turn your hair white.

You really hit the nail on the head weem, I have to sadly agree that I’ve heard some disgusting things around town as well.

Luton airport hasn’t let cars drive up to the terminal building for a while now- it can’t be long now before Heathrow and Gatwick etc. follow suit.

It’s strange though. I’m vaguely used to this having grown up through the IRA era and then the previous attacks and I know I’m not going to let it stop me doing anything I want to do, but this time I’m finding myself trying to second guess what might happen next. I have to go into London on Monday night and am debating in my head whether it would be safer to walk or take the tube.

I want to reiterate what weem said about not letting people be put off visiting. You’re much more likely to be injured or killed crossing the road in London (or anywhere else) than in a terrorist attack.

The main worry should be that some local knuckle draggers could use this as an excuse to give members of the local Asian community grief. Some of the things i’ve heard people say in the street this afternoon would turn your hair white.

Thanks Tony bLIAR for stoking the flame - now slope off to your cushy life. You’re like a schoolboy who farts in a room and runs away.

I understand the need for steps to be taken to lull the public into a feeling of safety, but the UK has one of the, if not the highest concentration of CCTV in the world. I can literally not walk around my tiny neighbourhood (in a town half the size of Maple Ridge) without being caught on tape, so what is the next step in security measures? Cars no longer being allowed to drive up to airport doors is merely a tightening of the stranglehold of surveillance and regulation the government will have on us and on all citizens.

All to what effect? As has sadly been proven, acts of terrorism cannot be prevented if those committing them choose to carry them out. Without wanting to seem crass, incidents like those in London and Glasgow are mere blips compared to the war going on. No matter how many fences you put up, guards you pay to stand around doorways or weapons you carry, terrorism will continue to happen. We’re most definitely treating the symptoms but not the sickness.

And, I’ve been to Tiger Tiger. Its known as an afterwork bar, where after happy hour, many white collar city workers get together after copious amounts of alcohol - and ‘pull’. OK, its been but its been along time since I’ve been there!! My point is it sounds scarily familiar to when the fellow recently convicted to 30 yrs (I think his name was Borot) for his plan to hit Ministry of Sound for the ’slags dancing around handbags’. Being that last Thursday was a ladies themed night at Tiger Tiger. And wasn’t the detonation device a mobile phone that the quick thinking policeman cut the wire too?