God Save The Queen!
According to a story from The Times, 14 November 2005, Queen Elizabeth II has been identified in an al-Qaeda video as "one of the severest enemies of Islam". In the video issued after the July 7 bombings in London, Osama Bin Laden's deputy, Alman al-Zawahiri allegedly holds the Queen as being responsible for Britain's "crusader laws" against Muslims.
If these views were not those of such a sinister organisation they would seem so laughably absurd as they reveal a colossal ignorance of the Queen's role (or non-role to be more accurate) in the policymaking of the British Government. Al-Qaeda's masterminds obviously have difficulty in distinguishing between the Queen's formal role as head of state and head of the Church of England, and confusing the role of Her Majesty with Her Majesty's Government. On the face of it the constitutional role of the Queen can be a little confusing. Yet if they spent 5 minutes reading a booklet like "The Westminster System 101" or "Constitutional Monarchy for Dummies" they'd realise that the Prime Minster, Mr. Blair directs British policy when he "advises" the Queen. It's not that difficult. This stuff can and is taught to primary school kids.
So who else is on their list of "severest enemies of Islam"? Ronald McDonald? Colonel Sanders?
The Queen's "Crusader Corgis"?
But seriously, it's very disappointing when so much hate & resentment appears to be based (or is at least marketed) on fundamental misapprehensions. For example al-Qaeda viewed the US forces intervention in Bosnia as prima facie meaning that - the US wanted to crush Muslims. Similarly the Australian intervention in East Timor was seen as another example of Western oppression of Muslims. Once again conveniently ignoring the rescue of the East Timorese being slaughtered by the Indonesian backed militia. Now no doubt in both cases there were strategic interests for the United States and Australia as with all deployments of armed forces but that doesn't mean they were out to oppress Muslims.
Now I'm not so sure that the al-Qaeda leadership actually believe their own propaganda (then again anything is possible)* , but it's really quite shocking that they can gain converts with this dodgy reasoning and interpretation of events. But I guess it's also quite shocking to think that voters in America were suckered into the strategic disaster of an invasion of Iraq, by Bush's conflation of 9/11 with Sadaam's dictatorship.
*According to the al-Qaeda manifesto, one of the great sins that Western countries engage in is usury i.e. the lending of money for interest. WTF??? Haven't they heard of the concept of the time value of money or the credit multiplier theory?
If these views were not those of such a sinister organisation they would seem so laughably absurd as they reveal a colossal ignorance of the Queen's role (or non-role to be more accurate) in the policymaking of the British Government. Al-Qaeda's masterminds obviously have difficulty in distinguishing between the Queen's formal role as head of state and head of the Church of England, and confusing the role of Her Majesty with Her Majesty's Government. On the face of it the constitutional role of the Queen can be a little confusing. Yet if they spent 5 minutes reading a booklet like "The Westminster System 101" or "Constitutional Monarchy for Dummies" they'd realise that the Prime Minster, Mr. Blair directs British policy when he "advises" the Queen. It's not that difficult. This stuff can and is taught to primary school kids.
So who else is on their list of "severest enemies of Islam"? Ronald McDonald? Colonel Sanders?
The Queen's "Crusader Corgis"?
But seriously, it's very disappointing when so much hate & resentment appears to be based (or is at least marketed) on fundamental misapprehensions. For example al-Qaeda viewed the US forces intervention in Bosnia as prima facie meaning that - the US wanted to crush Muslims. Similarly the Australian intervention in East Timor was seen as another example of Western oppression of Muslims. Once again conveniently ignoring the rescue of the East Timorese being slaughtered by the Indonesian backed militia. Now no doubt in both cases there were strategic interests for the United States and Australia as with all deployments of armed forces but that doesn't mean they were out to oppress Muslims.
Now I'm not so sure that the al-Qaeda leadership actually believe their own propaganda (then again anything is possible)* , but it's really quite shocking that they can gain converts with this dodgy reasoning and interpretation of events. But I guess it's also quite shocking to think that voters in America were suckered into the strategic disaster of an invasion of Iraq, by Bush's conflation of 9/11 with Sadaam's dictatorship.
*According to the al-Qaeda manifesto, one of the great sins that Western countries engage in is usury i.e. the lending of money for interest. WTF??? Haven't they heard of the concept of the time value of money or the credit multiplier theory?
posted by Dr. Kananga at 4:18 AM
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