Resistance is Phutile

Hamza and the media.

The media have come under fire from many quarters over the representation of Abu Hamza and his message of hate, and I agree such extensive coverage of Hamza has led to further problems. A nation of Sun readers believing a one-eyed, psychotic Captain Hook can be seen as representative of all Muslims is a worrying concept.

However, Hamza was inevitably going to attract attention to himself. An Imam in one of the country's most prominent mosques, it is hard to understand why his presence was tolerated.

Not by the British government, but by the Muslim community.

You would think the clerical community would have rapidly identified him as a dangerous extremist and subsequently sought to silence him. Even if it was felt by moderates he had a right to voice his message, however disagreeable, (which is disturbing) it was naive to the point of stupidity to grant the man a pedestal and therefore push him into the public eye.

To attack the media for its sensationalist hunger is like getting mad at a dog for eating a steak you left in its bowl.

I'm not saying the media are blameless, only that you incur some of the blame yourself if you did not prepare for the obvious consequences and do your best to avert them.

When a minority of sexually starved, tortured priests turned to minors in search of relief, the Catholic church was suddenly imagined to be teeming with perverts preying on choirboys. This is untrue, of course, but subsequent investigations into the church have revealed the paedophile element to be real, and identified the causes making a minority of otherwise normal men so desperate and tormented they are prepared to do the unthinkable.

Similar investigations need to be carried out into the radical elements of Muslim society today, in order that the preachers of hate, on the fringes or otherwise, be exposed and shut down. But this will never be achieved while the Muslim majority either turn a blind eye to, or even tacitly condone aspects of the teachings of someone like Hamza.

The sad fact is, there seems to be a shortage of senior Muslim figures willing to condemn Abu Hamza.

posted by Phu @ 11:25 am