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Saturday, 28 January 2006
West on the al-Masri trial

Diana West points out the illogic political correctness has placed on the trial of the notorious Abu Hamza al-Masri now being tried at the Old Bailey here.

"But even after mastering the heinous evidence, the jurors' task will be harder still. They will then have to make sense of the illogically contorted, politically correct legal arguments being mounted both for and against the defendant in order to exempt the role of Islam in modern-day jihad, or holy war.
    For the prosecution, David Perry says: "This is nothing more or less than preaching hatred and murder," which, he makes clear, has nothing to do with Islam.
    For the defense, Edward Fitzgerald says: "It is said he was preaching murder. But he was actually preaching from the Koran itself."
    Well, which is it, gentlemen? He's preaching murder that has nothing to do with Islam; or he's preaching the Koran that has nothing to do with murder. For people trying to fend off jihad in their midst, the question becomes a distracting conundrum.
But even after mastering the heinous evidence, the jurors' task will be harder still. They will then have to make sense of the illogically contorted, politically correct legal arguments being mounted both for and against the defendant in order to exempt the role of Islam in modern-day jihad, or holy war.
    For the prosecution, David Perry says: "This is nothing more or less than preaching hatred and murder," which, he makes clear, has nothing to do with Islam.
    For the defense, Edward Fitzgerald says: "It is said he was preaching murder. But he was actually preaching from the Koran itself."
    Well, which is it, gentlemen? He's preaching murder that has nothing to do with Islam; or he's preaching the Koran that has nothing to do with murder. For people trying to fend off jihad in their midst, the question becomes a distracting conundrum....

"...And that's the way they like it. Both the prosecution and the defense have decided that Islam plays no animating role in the modern jihadist movement of which Abu Hamza is a part. When the prosecutor describes Abu Hamza's preaching -- "holy war in the cause of Allah" as a "religious obligation" that includes the killing of non-believers -- he is describing the classic jihad ideology that has driven Islamic history; but he attributes it to Abu Hamza's idiosyncratic version of Islam. The defense, meanwhile, takes the same preaching -- "the language of blood and retribution," Mr. Fitzgerald says -- and declares it no different from any other religion's language.


    " In other words, whether or not Abu Hamza does hard time, jihad gets a pass."

Posted on 01/28/2006 8:03 AM by Rebecca Bynum
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