Another London terror attack

[NineBerry]

So, the chief terrorist of the London attack is called "Butt" and the London police chief is called "Dick".

I am starting to believe, Galaxian might be right.

[JimC]

I am starting to believe, Galaxian might be right.

You are in desperate need of several glasses of neat gin...

[NineBerry]

Butt. Dick.

[NineBerry]

I somewhat can understand someone called Butt becoming a terrorist. Imagine people are googling your name and find mostly butt images.

[NineBerry]

The guy had certainly become the butt of the joke.

[JimC]

Dicks can be famous detectives! Just think of Dick Tracey!

[pErvinalia]

Indeed.

Humans are a lower form of intelligence. They can only go about their menial duties, in a state of abject stupor.

Are you human?

He's a bot.

[pErvinalia]

It definitely should, because it would mean the public being rational. However, I know that humans on average are dumb fucks. That's, why liberalism doesn't work.

My point remains: terrorism is only effective by how we react to it. And in general I don't think that a lot of people actually do change their behaviour. I don't see concerts being cancelled or inner city areas missing visitors.

I agree they shouldn't change their behaviour - that would mean they were cowed by terrorists...

But I do think it is utterly reasonable for people to be very, very angry. If they believe that nothing effective is being done, then that anger could lead in a very difficult direction, but if action by both governments and the broader islamic community is widely seen to be doing the job, it won't...

It is doing the job, though. You don't see large terrorism attacks here in the west like they do in the middle east, Turkey and India etc. As I said, there's almost no way to stop this small scale stuff, other than to promote a civil society.

[JimC]

I certainly don't think nothing is being done; it seems that Oz authorities have been doing a pretty good job in comparison to many jurisdictions; probably the chances of a nasty backlash are lower here than in the UK (although letters to editors in Melbourne newspapers have been getting pretty apoplectic...). But it seems unlikely to me that we cannot do better still, particularly in assisting the muslim community to expose the groups within their ranks that actively support and encourage jihad...

[pErvinalia]

You are inventing a problem that just doesn't exist to any meaningful degree. Muslim communities do expose the groups within their ranks that actively support and encourage jihad and the intelligence services know about them. And they foil planned attacks. The reason you can't foil an attack that involves cars and knives is that they involve virtually no planning at all.

[JimC]

What that boils down to is saying that we cannot do any better, and so must accept a certain level of terrorist attacks. I'm not saying it can be reduced to zero, but I'm certain that, at least in the UK, the authorities could do better.

[Hermit]

At a memorial site for the London Bridge attack victims, several Muslim families have been handing out roses attached with a message declaring their disgust at the violence of extremism. Link

‘You’re not welcome in our community either in life or in death’

Scores more imams and Muslim religious leaders have said they will not perform funeral prayers for the perpetrators of the London Bridge attack, bringing the number of signatories to a statement to more than 200.

...

The statement was intended to deter extremists who believe that acts of jihad will be rewarded in the hereafter, said Rehanah Sadiq, an Islamic teacher.

Not enough, I suppose, until all 2.8 million Muslims living in the UK dress up in sackcloth and ashes and shout in unison: "Death to all Islamic terrorists!"

[pErvinalia]

What that boils down to is saying that we cannot do any better, and so must accept a certain level of terrorist attacks. I'm not saying it can be reduced to zero, but I'm certain that, at least in the UK, the authorities could do better.

I think they can too, and it's going to involve community engagement and working on integration, not giving up on habeus corpus and other civil liberties.

[JimC]

Hermit wrote:

Not enough, I suppose, until all 2.8 million Muslims living in the UK dress up in sackcloth and ashes and shout in unison: "Death to all Islamic terrorists!"

That would be a start, I guess, but they will also be required to get drunk on gin every Saturday night, to prove that they are civilised...

[JimC]

What that boils down to is saying that we cannot do any better, and so must accept a certain level of terrorist attacks. I'm not saying it can be reduced to zero, but I'm certain that, at least in the UK, the authorities could do better.

I think they can too, and it's going to involve community engagement and working on integration, not giving up on habeus corpus and other civil liberties.

Sure, "community engagement and working on integration" should be part of it, but it's not going to stop the hard-line, committed jihadists. And I don't really advocate a total abandonment of habeus corpus etc. but I simply question whether it truly applies to enemy combatants, which is a fair description of those wholly committed to ISIS... And I'm equally certain that there would be a small number of mosques in the UK that are still promoting jihad as acceptable islamic behaviour - those are the ones the muslim leadership simply must close down...