***LONDON****

[k mac]

ANY one in london out there ??? hope your ok and my heart goes ou to all of you there

[babyboarder89]

my thoughts are with you all, i cant believe it. my school spent the day at drayton manor and it came on the radio on the way back and the bus was just quiet.

[drowningbitbybit]

It was a sad place to be yesterday

Sadly it looks like the number killed will be above 50 now.

Scary too for many people, as the phone networks were down so despite knowing that they were okay, many people had no idea about friends and family.

And what was the point? What the hell is this going to acheive?

If one positive thing came out of yesterday, Im proud of the way everyone reacted. Despite the difficulties many people had travelling, or reaching loved ones yesterday, everyone did their best to help and we're all getting back to 'normal' as fast as we can.

God bless those who lost their lives, and the injured.

[sinistapenguin]

I want to say how impressed I was with the Emergency Services who have done an amazing job.

Also to the people of London, my thoughts are with you all. The way the city has handled the crisis is a tribute to the british spirit.

My condolences go out to the families who have lost people.

Ben

[babyboarder89]

absolutely, the emergency services did a fantastic job and the people have handled such a horrible situation incredibly.
it was a scary situation for so many poeple, everyone knows someone in london who uses the tube, so many poeple know somebody who missed it by minutes, its such a waste of life, it proved nothing good about the people who did it.
my thoughts are with those who have lost people or been injured.

[gulfsurfer]

It was muslims who did it right?
The muslim religion is probably the most screwed up thing i have ever heard of.

Lets not jump to conclusions so quickly

1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by:
a. Superman
b. Jay Lenno
c. Harry Potter
d. Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred
by: a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. Lost Norwegians
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3.During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. Pee Wee Herman
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6.In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying
to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. Mother Teresa
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7.In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. Grandma Moses
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9.In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Wild Bill' s women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to
take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into
the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the
passengers.Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. The Supreme Court of Florida
c. Mr. Bean
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11.In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. Captain Kangaroo
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

[babyboarder89]

I think its probably worth pointing out that its not all muslims-islam is not a 'screwed up' religion, yes there are extremists and dangerous muslims but that does not make them all murderers. The vcast majority of muslims feel exactly the same way about these things as anyone else does.

[k mac]

it doesnt make all muselims bad though does it !
i was in a takeway lastnight and there were blokes in there having a go at the people who are in there beacause they are dark skinned (greek) ans saying they blamed them for the london attaks ...its easy to use a whole religion as a scapegoat but dnt its just certain people within that religion ..as your post says

Muslim male extremist between the ages of 17 and 40

note the EXTREMIST bit ......

[gulfsurfer]

I know that not ALL of them are bad, but the religion is pretty stupid if you ask me. Thats why they do suicide bombings, cuz they think you go to heaven for that. I know some muslims and theyre cool, its like k mac said, its the extremist part thats stupid.

[Phil]

not really its just terrorists twist the relgion to mean some thing it doesnt, people are brain washed into beliving it

if you sit down and compare it to chistianity im sure there isnt much diffrence between them its just how you inturprite what it means

[globesurfer]

I think I'll answer 'D' for all of them

Far out..

[sinistapenguin]

Religion, generally has caused more deaths than most diseases!!

There was this little thing a while ago called the crusades when Christians invaded the middle east and slaughtered hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the name of God.

I don't believe there are any religions that actually condone killing people, but it's all down to how you interpret things.

Extremists tend to think that theirs is the one true religion, so therefore anyone who is of a different religion is evil and should be got rid of.

I'm not agreeing with the attacks but it's very easy to blame a whole religion for something which in fact is totally against that religion's beliefs.

Sinista

[Broosta]

...erm gonna get a little controversial now (for a change )...
I reckon ALL religion has a lot to answer for. What started or contributed in a major way most wars there has ever been - RELIGIOUS differences!

Christians V Muslims = crusades.
Hitler(Christian?) V Jews = Holocaust.
Catholics V Protestants = Troubles in N Ireland.
Jews V Catholics V ?Pagans = Spanish Inquistion.
All the missionaries who imposed their religions on natives of various countries.
And loads, loads more...

I feel religion itself is ok just like guns are ok when not in the hands of a human. Religion just sucks when humans get involved! Its kinda like giving a caveman an AK47 that never runs out of ammo. It just seems to be a very powerfull weapon used to incite mass support for some bollox or other, which very often results in many people who happen to believe in a different religion dying.
Yeah religion f great !

[Brent]

Um, time for one of my fathers favourite sayings "religion is just a bunch of people sitting around talking to & arguing about who has the best invisible friend"...

Religion only has weight when combined with politics.

[gulfsurfer]

Nice way to put it brent. I know absolutley nothing about religions, cuz ive only been to church like 2 times, and i dont even know what kind of religion that was for, i think christian but i'm not sure. It doesnt really matter to me.

[Brent]

Religion itself is harmless - a bunch of people praying to their God of choice. Nothing more.

Only when Religion is combined with political power, military dictatorship or other despot behaviour does it become dangerous. Religion's secondary use has become(unfortunately) for those innocents taking part to use it as an organiser of large motivated groups of people. I know everybody loves having a crack at Muslims at the moment because it is fashionable for the obvious reasons being they are a small sector of our populations (east to pick on), they look different, they are (usually) from poor countries, and they have "firmer" beliefs than ours. But if you look deeper at the behaviour of these errant Muslims who do bad things in the west you'll see the problems are actually caused by political motives and these offenders just happen to be Muslim. We westerners are threatening their whole way of life with our Coca-Cola lifestyle, fast food outlets, consumerist behaviour, greed, our love of their oil at any cost…we've "invaded" their countries with our televisions, 4x4's, bling & whatever. These people earnestly believe their whole way of life is under threat. The fact they happen to be Muslims is incidental. They just care enough to be aggressive about it.

Is it any surprise our Television images of these religious groups are of bearded young men jumping up & down waving AK 47's and ranting at the camera….why, because this is the image western media likes to portray and our western political leaders want us to see.

Think about it.

[sinistapenguin]

Wow, this is really turning into a political debate!

"Everybody do the propaganda!!" (Green Day, American Idiot)

Propaganda rules our lives, politicians use our media to form our opinions on things. They show us what they want us to believe. If they showed footage of peaceful Muslim celebrations, of normal people celebrating life and being nice to each other, it would be very difficult to rouse public interest in a 'war against terror' which has a political agenda of 'make sure nothing upsets our access to oil!'.

I'm not criticising the true idea of a 'war on terror', but it isn't that simple.

When I studied German at uni, I did a course called Cinema and Fascism in which we watched all the Nazi propaganda films. One in particular sticks in my mind "Der Ewige Jude" (the eternal Jew) showed how the Jews were stealing German jobs by disguising themselves as 'normal' people. It also showed what they claimed were scenes of 'Kosher slaughter' where some people dressed as Jews slit a cow's throat and watched it thrash about until it died.

When you consider that the Cinema was the only way people had of seeing 'the News' in those days, it convincingly made it look like the Jews were a bunch of barbarians who were out to take over the world.

Constantly bombarded with these images, the German public saw the 'Entloesung' (holocaust) as freeing the world of a dangerous race of people.

Sound familiar?

our Television images of these religious groups are of bearded young men jumping up & down waving AK 47's and ranting at the camera

I would urge people to be open minded. Religion is not to blame for these atrocities, but fear of God is a powerful motivator and religion a convenient scapegoat.

Sinista