"Jihad": A few things don't add up...?

[Beachtastic]

I know it's early days and we don't have much info to go on about the killer at the Manchester synagogue. But this BBC news article is very confusing.

He's described as a "35-year-old British citizen of Syrian descent" who "was granted British citizenship in 2006 when he was around the age of 16" ... my maths is shit, but 2025 minus 2006 = 19...? Other articles says he was a minor when he was given citizenship.

Apparently he was "on police bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape at the time of the killings" but "was not charged with the offence."

His parents, understandably, have made a strong statement distancing themselves from his actions, but the article goes on to say:

A post on his father's Facebook page, which has been verified by the BBC, appears to praise the 7 October attack by Hamas.
... The post reads: "The scenes broadcast by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades showing a group of fighters storming an occupation army camp with simple means, balloons and motorcycles, prove beyond any doubt that Israel is not here to stay.
"Men like these prove that they are Allah's men on earth, regardless of who leads them, they are the true compass for men confident in their victory, even if their resources are few."

It also says his father is a surgeon... and that "Jihad" was his birth name.

I'm not sure where to begin processing all this information, if it's true. Quite surprised to find it reported by the BBC to be honest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0q7y72kppgo

But this is the thing about "Muslim" as a broad umbrella term -- a Muslim in Indonesia, for example, would have a totally different life than one in Syria.

Are you sure??? 🤡

Yes, and? Just trying to point put that the home secretary was not necessarily deliberately lying as implied by the person I quoted.

Sorry, wasn't having a go!

Yes certainly although I would loosely argue that wars in the West are largely allies supporting a victim country, if you like. Or the main powers feeling obliged to step in to right previous wrongs (which was wrong to do)

I think the past 30 years or so has lessened the instinct to get involved in others warfare, although of course it still happens and we sell arms and support various regimes this way

Whereas religious war is about gaining the person, the control, the land, the high ground, the destruction of the other.

Interesting Point.

My daughter is at an all girls school with a large number of Muslims. There are a number in her friendship group. I’ve invited them individually and as a group numerous times to various events, play dates and time after time they are refused. Never turned down, always accepted but there’s a las minute excuse.

The one friend who did come had both parents accompany her and stay for 2.5 hours whilst the girls played perfectly happy and innocently. Play date never reciprocated.

The girls now just accept it. Will laugh about how they aren’t allowed sleepovers or play dates.

ive been quite surprised how culturally different and how segregated it feels.

Radical anything is a massive issue . Some research was made and it seems the number of Muslims who support terrorism is a high as 9 to 20 % so even if it’s the lowest we are still talking about over 300000 people in the uk alone.
The main issue is how to deal with it without making the other 91% feel attacked , and even harder because communities prefer to keep quintet than admite knowing people with extreme views . Outsiders fear to say much because if we do we are Islamophobics . So we go on a vicious cycle where everyone pretends it’s not a issue .
Same goes for other extremisms I’m discussing Muslims as the terrorist was Muslim

Source

General fyi, theres 2.1 billion muslims in the world.

My parents came from Pakistan I always went on playdates as do my dc. No sleepovers but they weren’t such a big deal when I was a child as they are now. It was very normal for parents to come and collect at 11pm on the weekend!

There where a few but the one I think I remember reading was this

blog.policy.manchester.ac.uk/featured/2014/08/can-we-ever-estimate-how-many-british-muslims-will-become-islamic-extremists/

Theres a whole heap of stats here, enough to make your eyes boggle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_attitudes_toward_terrorism

Exactly. Like Iran, ISIS and the Taliban don't accurately interpret the Quran. Iraq has legalised the marriage of girls as young 9 in the name of religion 💔

I wouldn't call what's happening in France 'interesting', it's shocking the levels of antisemitism there. Huge numbers of French Jews have emigrated to Israel as a result

I'm not really interested in what weird things happen with the distortion/misinterpretation of Islam in other countries. I'm worried about radical Islam in the UK and how it is fracturing society.

I think radical Islam and the far left make strong bedfellows and I see far more social division coming from those quarters than the far right. The media, both traditional and online make a conceited effort to point at the far right but if you look at the numbers of marches, unrest and arrests, and the MI5 terrorist watch list, the danger is coming from the far left and RI

I’m sorry to say that I don’t believe radical Islam is limited to a few lunatic individuals in the U.K.

This is interesting and I agree there is a lack of adapting to what is typical here. I say that as. British Pakistani who is Muslim. I think this stems from fear. When there were lots of Pakistani people coming to the UK from the 1979's onwards, a lot of them experienced racism in one form or another. Sadly in a violent way. Skin heads who went Paki bashing and the sorts, being the most obvious to stuff like intentionally giving young children pork at lunchtimes. British Asians have faced a lot of racism over the decades and it's a negative feedback loop.

Both sides have to accept each other and accept that the majority on the other side are mostly well meaning people who want everyone to get along. The fringe extremes on both sides want you to believe otherwise. Their views sells and is click bait.

That’s pretty bloody shocking really isn’t it.

I agree with this, there was alot of open racism and many Muslims were scared for their children and for themselves. Not just because they were Muslim but because they were brown and often on the receiving end of abuse.

Also dropping your child to a friends house alone isn't always the cultural norm and this isn't necessarily because of Islam. In some cultures young children only go unaccompanied to homes of close relatives. Tbf when i was a child I hardly went to any friends houses nor did they come to mine. Im talking about other Muslim friends here too, we mostly just all used to play outside on the street.

Yeah I think there is a bit of confusion over the name as you say 35 years ago could have been different.I think in this country now we are used to the term “holy jihad” meaning something a bit stronger than negative thoughts against someone.
Whilst you say the family ie the father have condemned his actions, only 5 days ago the father posted this.

Yes, I remember the racism from my childhood. Indian restaurants back then were something of a novelty in the UK (hard to imagine, now that the national dish is Tikka Masala!), and my parents used to take me to one as a special treat. Now and then some wankers from the pub would come in and start ordering the waiters around with "Oi! Abdul!" (etc), it was hideous. Ditto the Jamaican community, who had to deal with similar shitheads.

I thought we had all progressed a long way from that, but radical Islam is so hateful and destructive that it is sowing new seeds of deep resentment and fear -- either towards the Jewish population, or reactions towards the Muslim community who are held responsible. I am also wary of the "peace marches" which seem to be orchestrated by bad actors in ways that deliberately inflame these divisions.

Thinking out loud here, no idea WTF we do about any of this.

Of course your husband will be confused because he is not from Syria or the region. He is from Pakistan (a non Arab). He will not know what a common Syrian name might be. Just because your husband is a Muslim, it doesn’t make him a pro in Arab names. Popularity of names in the Arab region differ massively. I lived in the region for sometime and I can tell you, the name Jihad, is not uncommon in region near and around Syria and it literally means struggle ( they love verbs/ adjectives/nouns as names over there). Having said that I think it’s becoming less popular recently because of its negative connotations.

they love verbs/ adjectives/nouns as names over there

Very true! Muslim names can vary widely between different cultures too.

Is it just a fringe extreme though? I mean the amount of people who'd commit a terrorist attack is a small percentage but how widespread is the low level stuff like this

I was in an Uber and the Asian driver just suddenly started giving me a diatribe on how Israel were ISIS, that it stood for the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service! 😵‍💫 He actually really believed it

Another occasion I was having a conversation with a young Asian guy and we got on to the subject of travelling we'd done. I mentioned I'd been in the Middle East and had visited Israel and he kept making a real point of correcting me to call it Palestine

Why did these two men feel the need to ram their anti-Jewish conspiracy theory and politics down my throat?