The London
Bomb Plot
Aug
25, 2006
Britain was rocked
last week with revelations of an alleged bomb
plot designed to take down 10 jumbo jets in mid-flight
over the Atlantic, killing potentially thousands.
So far, the British authorities have been very
tight-lipped about the whole thing, and very little
information about the suspects or the plot has
been revealed.
What is known, and much of this remains unproven
in any legal sense, is that a group of mostly
British-born men of Pakistani origin have been
working together over the last year to construct
a workable plan to bring down the planes. Given
the much higher post-9/11 security, this presented
a real challenge. The method apparently was to
smuggle two different harmless liquids onto each
plane, but when mixed together in the bathroom,
the two liquids produce a powerful explosive that
could take the plane down. Some sources reported
that these two liquids were to be acetone and
peroxide, which when mixed create an explosive
known as triacetone triperoxide (TATP). TATP can
be easily detonated and can cause serious damage
to a plane.
Such a plan would have needed two suicide bombers
per plane, or twenty total. It may have been this
large number of jihadis that resulted in the plan
being compromised. There is also a strong Pakistani
connection, and some sources suggest that an operative
caught in Pakistan spilled the beans.
In the days and weeks to come the actual nature
of the plan will be exposed, and how true a threat
it represented. It is not clear if most of these
guys even had a passport, and they certainly were
being watched closely enough that they would never
have been allowed to board a plane.
What is more important though is the question
of why does this sort of thing even go on? Why
are there Muslims who want to destroy airplanes
full of innocent civilians? The recent war in
Lebanon, although a moral outrage that was perpetrated
with the full backing of the US, could not explain
a plot of one year in the making.
This mentality among some Muslims, that we are
in a war with the West, and particularly America
and Britain, is simply a dead end road. It is
patently untrue, and does not lead anywhere. By
killing enough Americans or Britishers do they
expect some good to come of it?
It is unclear if a member of Bin Laden’s
actual network has a connection to this group,
or they are just inspired by his example, but
in either case, it is a relevant question to ask
what Al-Qaeda is offering the Muslim world. Do
they have an answer to illiteracy? How about feudal
landlordism? What will they do about police incompetence
and torture? How about judicial and governmental
corruption? How do they intend to deal with inflation
or unemployment? What is their approach to the
paucity of Muslims at the top of scientific and
technological and business achievement around
the globe? How will they reduce infant mortality?
The Jihadi worldview has no answers. It offers
nothing to the Muslims except the feel-good factor
of revenge. We have been hurt, so you will be
hurt too. But doesn’t it matter who the
revenge is exacted on? If the Jihadis have a problem
with an individual, shouldn’t they go after
that individual, or at least soldiers, not innocent
random civilians on an airplane flight? Do they
not fear a God who has clearly stated in the Qur’an
that they must always do justice, even if it is
against themselves? If they did fear such a God,
they would never consider these murderous attacks.
These people are not Muslim heroes. The true heroes
open schools, start hospitals, break ground on
a new factory, send their children to university,
and set an example everyday of kindness, compassion,
and justice. It is these sorts of Muslims that
I admire.
