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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** On 8 Jul 2005, at 13:20, Robert Stensrud wrote: > Related to this point, please read the Thomas Friedman editorial in > Today's New York Times regarding the terrorist attack in London. > > http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/08/opinion/08friedman.html?th&emc=th Whilst the link between this editorial and the original topic of discussion seems tenuous at best, I feel that since it's been mentioned, it should be challenged. Firstly, terrorist action in England has been an occasional feature of life for a long time, largely as a result of IRA action. It's terribly sad that people have died and been injured (and yesterday was stressful for those of us who have friends in the capital), but today we're back to business as usual. The odd explosion in London won't cause us to lose our freedoms. How we react to such explosions might, however. Secondly, it still isn't clear who was responsible for the bombings. Someone has put up a rant in arabic on a website claiming responsibility, but that doesn't prove anything. It may yet prove to be the work of Al-Qaeda, but we don't know that yet. Thirdly, to glibly connect Al-Qaeda with Islam serves to further the alienation some Muslims feel in our society. There is no room for the blowing up of innocents in Islam. Fourthly, the assertion that "The Muslim village has been derelict in condeming the madness of jihadist attacks" is simply incorrect. British Muslim leaders have been lining up to condemn the attacks in the clearest possible tones, and to suggest otherwise is slapdash journalism. London will defeat the madmen who are responsible for these attacks by uniting as a community, not by alienating the Muslim population who are already fed up of people claiming atrocities are "Islamic" in origin. Regards, Matthew -- Matthew Vernon MA VetMB LGSM MRCVS Farm Animal Epidemiology and Informatics Unit Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge http://www.cus.cam.ac.uk/~mcv21/ _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.