The 'backlash' is a racist reaction

It's sadly unsurprising that in the days following the London bombs, the number of racist attacks against Muslims have increased in the UK. The fascist BNP have gone as far as picturing the bus bomb on a party leaflet. The party, which preaches violence against Muslims, and the deportation of all non-whites, implicitly links the British Muslim population as a whole with the London bombs.

It is equally sad, and unsurprising, that the usual suspects have been posting increasingly inflammatory messages on internet messageboards. Whenever terrorism is in the headlines, a small hardcore group of fascists and racists flood messageboards with the sort of messages you could be prosecuted for publishing in England. Most of these posters are American, but there are some from the UK and other European countries.

Given that many websites are not hosted in the UK, it's impossible to apply British law to them. The only thing that activists can do is contact webmasters and ask them to remove any content that is patently racist, or inciteful to racial hatred or violence. I'd recommend having some friends write emails as well, as there is nothing that works on combating racism better than embarrassing people. That's because people know that racism is inherently illogical and impossible to support by reasoned argument. Hence the violence.

The amusing (perhaps not the right word, but you've got to laugh when you fall off a sofa) thing is that people posting anti-Muslim racist messages on the internet are, more than anyone else, playing into the hands of the terrorists. It seems patently clear that the terrorists, whilst obviously pissed off about US bases in Saudi Arabia, really just want to trigger some sort of war of race and religion. They want us to hate Muslims because that will encourage more conflict. So anyone whose immediate reaction is to condemn Muslims ought to realise that they're being manipulated.

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