Muhummad - I've come to the conclusion that you are either 9 years old or an idiot. Good night and good luck.

Acts of terrorism is a symptom of a disease, and the disease is oil and all their consequences.

Man, any man, is a stable creature, unless he gets provoct. Bomb them pisstaking bitches, why not, if means came to must!

Ahhh, so it's idiot then.

Excellent article - the plight of the ahmadi muslims in Pakistan is very sad. The government of Pakistan needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

Whatever strange maladjusted kick you get out of pretending to be a muslim supporting jihad against the west, to do so on the anniversary of 7/7 is beneath contempt. Luckily trolls like you will never be the death of true debate.
Who knows, when you grow up a little you might reflect on this.

Muhammed - if you read my post you would see that I was on the streets along with thousands of other non-muslims protesting against the invasion of Iraq. I condemned it then and I condem it now. Luckily I live in a country where I can protest against the actions of the Government.

However you seem to keep completely missing the point of Mehdi's article. Every day we hear of different Muslim sects blowing each other up and other innocent victims. What's not to condemn?

What do you mean 'to please the likes of you'

Are you as racist?

I completely agree! Great wee post

More importantly, ALL citizens of the West should speak out in condemnation of the terrorist attacks that have been and continue to be committed in our names.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam, Fallujah, Palestine, Afghanistan.

The only moral difference between Islamic terrorism and Western state terrorism is that the former is puny by comparison.

I heard you on a programme about the 7/7 bombers anticipating that next time something like that happened the reaction of non-Muslims to Muslims in general may not be so mild. I thought you were right and that you are right in this article. The image of Muslims in this country has worsened over the last five years, partly through the activities of eg Anjem Choudary and partly, as you say, through what seems to be a selective anger about outrages against Muslims but not when performed by other Muslims, or by Muslims on non-Muslims. When I see British Asian Muslims jumping up and down about the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis, I ask myself whether they would give a toss if most of the Palestinians were Christians instead of Muslims. Choudary and his ilk get publicity way out of proportion to their actual influence and it is unfair that Muslims have to counteract some fairly gross misrepresentation but it would certainly do something to cut the ground from under the feet of the likes of the EDL.

Most muslim's care more about the thousands of innocent's who have lost their lives and are still being killed due to western forces.
You mass murder muslim's then want us to condemn the relatively few lives you loose.
I wish no lives were lost but let's hear an apology for the illegal war on Iraq or were the victims merely "collateral damage".
If you want rid of terror then just stop interfering with muslim countries. So what if we all kill each other,Is that not what you want.

As a muslim I condemn all act's of terrorism.
All muslim's in the uk are happy to see muslim's die daily if we can remove the bloodshed from the streets of britain.

@ muhammed

It would be good now if someone from the muslim community now posted that you are a bit of a twat.

We have already spoken out enough about terrorism. I've seen many people rally against terrorism, yet I look in the 'Western' media, and I see this on the 18th page! Our words of condemnation always fall on deaf ears.

1R4M - who said anything about "apologising"? I'm not going to apologize for Bin Laden and co but I am going to condemn them, distance myself and my faith from them and publicly proclaim Islam's opposition to the killing of innocent civilians. How dare people blow up mosques or churches or marketplaces and then claim that they do so in the name of my faith? I can't stay silent. Sorry. Those people repulse and sicken me...

These ppl sicken me too
but I dont see why I SHOULD keep coming out to condemn them; once is plenty
I dont see other communities having to apologise for the actions of idiots who carry out atrocities in their name

so why Muslims

@ Des Demona

i think he is a twat...

@mehdi

I take it this conversion was recent?

A few weeks ago I tried to comment on your post where you argued that muslims should not have to condem the small minority of muslims who commit terrorist actions against civillians, just to prove that they are 'against' terrorism in general, as this moral standard is applied to any other faith. My argument was effectively the same as you just made in this post; glad to see you've seen the light!

My complaint is only that after a couple of hours my post was removed by the moderators. How the hell can it be alright for you to make a point but not for someone else to make it?!?

Salil - thanks for your comments. You wrote:
"Why not express outrage when Muslims attack non-Muslims, too? as in Bangladesh? or India? And to take it even further, in the end, shouldn't we all condemn all acts of terrorism, whoever commits them, and whoever might be the victim?" Actually, I wrote something similar last August in this blog post:

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2009/08/muslims-darfur-poi...

1R4M - who said anything about "apologising"? I'm not going to apologize for Bin Laden and co but I am going to condemn them, distance myself and my faith from them and publicly proclaim Islam's opposition to the killing of innocent civilians. How dare people blow up mosques or churches or marketplaces and then claim that they do so in the name of my faith? I can't stay silent. Sorry. Those people repulse and sicken me...

Mehdi Hasan, you're becoming a bit of a G in politics. Good work.

The media is not interested in the moderate muslim, the media is only interested in anjum choudry and his 40 or so crazy followers, it sickens me the muslim population in the uk numbers about 2 million the majority of them are law abiding citizens, but yet the media refuses to give them a platform all we ever get to hear about or see is the few rotten apples, media has got a very big part to play in this their trying to brain wash the masses to hate muslims, i am yet to meet a muslim who dont condemn with the harshest words the terroist atrocitys being commited in there good name, take for example the bias reporting by the media about what happened on that flotilla we only got to see the IDF version of events, commando's storming a ship in international waters carrying aid with civillians on board but yet these people on board were turned in to terroists by the media, israel gets away with murder again the muslims are suffering alot of injustices and its become acceptable....

Dear Muhammed:

''Mehdi Hasan's D you continue to believe in the myth that mujahideen are crazy people intent on converting the world to islam like some crazed zombies.''

Oh, so when Osama Bin Laden states that his goal is to subdue, convert, or kill non-Muslims, he doesn't actually mean it? Of course, Bin Laden's more immediate concern is to establish his dream Khilafa that cn take on the entire world, but any attacks that strike terror into the heart of the infidels (such as 9/11, the 1993 WTC bombing etc.) are justified to expand the realm of Dar Al-Islam.

''Regards jihad I believe if I lived in palestine then jihad should be waged on Israel as well as in afghanistan,somalia,and every other country where america is interfering or propping up puppet governments.''

Right, and when you wage jihad on Israel, what would your goal be? To eliminate Israel and end any form of Jewish sovereignity in Dar Al-Islam? Do you believe Israel has any right to exist? I'm sure you don't want to kill all its inhabitants, but it appears you would like to destroy it.

By the way, America is not ''propping up'' a ''puppet government'' in Somalia. The present Somali government, which has little authority, is just not Islamic enough for you, is it? Tell me, what do you make of Ash-Shabaab's jihad? A jihad that includes, inter alia, bombing civilians intentionally, pulling out gold teeth from residents, murdering aid workers and apostates from Islam. Ash-Shabaab even tried to murder Kurt Westergaard for drawing a picture of Mohammed.

Whilst I don't support propping up Karzai's corrupt regime and favour a major change in strategy in Afghanistan, the jihad being waged there (and which you support) is simply appalling. What do you make of the Taliban's poison gas attacks on girls' schools, use of human shields, suicide bombings against innocent civilians? Yes, the coalition forces there have killed many Afghan civilians by mistake, but nothing comparable to those who wage the jihad there. By the way, please don't go into a long rambling disquisition about ''defensive jihad'', as the Taliban, ash-Shabaab et al. all characterise the struggle to establish the supremacy of Shari'a in Muslim lands as defensive.

''Being a resident of britain my jihad is quite different to those fighting say in palestine,My sword is the mighty pen.''

How cute! You are engaged in jihad al-kalam! Well, Muhammed, I never said that jihad only takes the form of warfare with guns and knives or only has one meaning, but its prmary aim, as understood through centuries of Islamic tradition, is to remove all obstacles to the dominance of Dar Al-Islam over the entire world, usually by warfare. This is done in the West primarily through Dawa campaigns. Thank you for exposing yourself as part of this movement to subvert Britain from within through stealth jihad.

''Your understanding of the Qur'an is quite frankly very limited.I bet you could not even find the verse explaining how to perform salaat the most important form of prayer every muslim performs 5 times a day.''

Why should I care how a Muslim prays? That's a private matter that doesn't concern me. In any case, I can point you to 73:20, which tells a Muslim to recite a portion of the Qur'an ''so much as is feasible'' during each ruk'a. Also, I was merely shedding light on the traditional theology jihadists use to justify their actions. If you think their understanding of the Qur'an is limited, take it up with them, not me, as I have never even said that their interpretation is correct (not for me to decide anyway), only that it has a strong traditional grounding.

Cordially,
Mehdi Hasan's Doppelganger.

Theres a witch hunt going on against muslims and its going to get a lot worser, they are part to blame they've sleep walked in to this ambush, they need to start lobbying there MP's, they need to get more involved in the PR game and stop letting islamaphobes like Melanie Phillips, Kelvin Mckenzie, Fraser Nelson, Douglas Murray get away with the crap they get away with, Geert Wilders gets the red carpet treatment were as scholars like Dr Zakir Naik get banned from entering the country weres the justice in that...

Instead of making yourself look stupid on Question time and being swatted like a fly, why don't you try and say something intelligent on TV?

@mohammed

Yes it was an ad homninem attack but you pretty much deserved it. The thrust of Mehdi's argument was that Muslims blowing up anyone in the name of Islam should be condemned. For you to intimate that 'we' are quite happy to see Muslims killing each other goes back to the playground debating Mehdi referred to.

As far as apologising for anything - that was never mentioned in his article. But if you want to get into that - how about you apologise for 9/11, which predates the invasion of Iraq, (which I personally took to the streets to oppose along with thousands of other non-muslims) and I'll apologise for the Crusades?

Alternatively we could move on out of the playground and simply agree with Mehdi's position that in Islam there is no place for those who kill innocent civillians in mosques churches and markets in the name of religion?

des demona you went on a march how great.
Regards the article and your point about muslim on muslim killing, Where exactly have you heard muslims condone or even encourage such atrocities?Have you attented a masjid where every day prayers are said for those affected by such attacks?
Or do we have to shout aloud in the streets and condemn such incidents?
"The likes of you" I am referring to those who think like you do.
Creating divisions among muslims is what america does all the time,Iraq,afghanistan,iran,somalia the list is endless.We muslims realise this is what causes muslims to fight each other.My view is any muslim who encourages or joins a foreign army to kill other muslims is very wrong.
If america and her poodles stop interfering in muslim countries propping up evil leaders then you will see an end to terrorism but this is not a scenario the western governments will allow.

tomhagen - I agree with much of what you wrote and, as I said in the post, I don't mean to excuse western atrocities in Iraq or Afghanistan (read my blog, you'll see I'm always critiquing and condemning our foreign wars). But I don't think attacks in Pakistan can be dismissed as a "domestic" issue when the actors involved claim to be acting in the name of Islam (i.e. my faith and those of millions of others across the planet). Oh, and while I am passionately opposed to, and repulsed by, Israeli aggression and state-backed terror operations against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, I have to point out to you that Jordan, for example, killed far more Palestinians in Black September than the Israelis did in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, and more Muslims died during the Iran-Iraq war than during the invasion of Iraq. As I said, that doesn't excuse western crimes or atrocities, but the world is not as black and white as some of my Muslim brethren might suggest.