This gives a new meaning to the phrase ‘health care crisis’:
Eight people arrested in connection with failed car bombings in Glasgow and London all have links with the National Health Service, the BBC has learned. Seven are believed to be doctors or medical students, while one formerly worked as a laboratory technician.
A suspect in hospital after the Glasgow attack has been named as Khalid Ahmed, who is believed to be a doctor…
Australian media have identified a man arrested at Brisbane Airport as Dr Mohammed Haneef, 27, who has worked at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, Cheshire. He was detained while trying to board a plane to India. — BBC [my emphasis]
Meanwhile, UK officials have taken the point of view that the attacks are not related to Islam:
[British Prime Minister] Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim†in Âconnection with the Âterrorism crisis.
The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on Âterror†is to be dropped…
Officials insist that no direct links with Muslim extremists have been publicly confirmed by police investigating the latest attempted terror attacks. Mr Brown himself did not refer to Muslims or Islam once in a BBC TV interview on Sunday…
[Smith] said: “Let us be clear – terrorists are criminals, whose victims come from all walks of life, communities and religions. Terrorists attack the values shared by all law-abiding citizens. As a Government, as communities, as individuals, we need to ensure that the message of the terrorists is rejected.†— Daily Express, UK
Can you imagine Churchill in 1941 saying something like “the Luftwaffe pilots who are bombing us come from all walks of life, etc.” and refusing to mention Germany or Nazism?
A former homeland security spokesman said “we know that the vast majority of Muslims are not involved in terrorism and we have to accept there are sensitivities about these matters”. Are they also too dumb to understand the difference between a condemnation of radical Islamic terrorists and saying “all Muslims are terrorists”?
Thanks to Little Green Footballs for both of these links.
Technorati Tags: terrorism, UK bombings, Gordon Brown
This is a sign that the British are about to try and buy a ‘separate peace’ for themselves. They will probably pull their forces from Iraq, and leave the Americans there. This will they hope reduce the motivation for attacks against them at home. It will also increase the popularity of the government.
Some may think of this as moral cowardice, betrayal of the cause of the West. But the British will be able to think of themselves as being ‘good Europeans’.