Burden Of Guilt

I fear that this defensiveness may last a long time. It's almost as though we are all feeling guilty; it is being even suggested that we should all feel guilty for something someone else has done. We feel really sorry for the families of those who died and for the injured, for the families of these misled Muslim youths who resorted to acts of terrorism, for innocent Muslims who are being victimised.

But I feel especially sorry for another reason. I remember that protest march in London on February 15, 2003, a little over a month before the invasion of Iraq. It was the biggest rally London had ever seen. We Muslims marched side by side with such a vast majority of Londoners and others who had come from far-off towns. All surveys since have pointed out that 60 to 70 per cent or even more people in Britain opposed the Iraq war. So in the 7/7 attack some of our youth must actually have killed our own supporters. That is besides the fact that no innocent people should ever be killed anywhere; not in Britain, nor in Iraq, nor anywhere else. It is right to protest against wrong foreign policies, but not by setting off bombs.