'You People". Thoughts on the Woolwich Murder and a Perverted Theology of Violence.

"We swear by the Almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone. The only reason we have killed this man this is because Muslims are dying daily. This British soldier is an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth ... We must fight them as they fight us. An eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth...I apologise that women had to see this today but in our lands our women have to see the same. You people will never be safe. Remove your governments. They don't care about you. Do you think David Cameron is gonna get caught in the street when we start busting our guns? Do you think the politicians are gonna die? No, it's gonna be the average guy – like you, and your children. So get rid of them. Tell them to bring our troops back so you can all live in peace. Leave our lands and you will live in peace. That’s all I have to say. Allah’s peace and blessings be upon you. Salaam alaikum".

Michael Adebolajo's brutal hacking to death of an off duty soldier was done in clear day on 22nd May 2013 in a street of south London. While reports claim the murder was a frenzied attack, Adebolajo seemed quite calm and composed when he delivered there his deadly message to the British public via camera footage.

Much immediate media coverage was irresponsible. When ITN claimed Adebolajo had brought 'Baghdad violence to the streets of London' it could only have been exactly what he had wanted as a response. Such a lurid comment was typically one that had no relation to Adebolajo's statement when he blamed Afghanistan.

In reality, of course, a perverted theology was at work in Adebolajo's mind that many have not yet taken seriously on its own grounds. They tend to think Adebolajo was 'radicalised' or that his statement must be taken as the true, if regrettable, statement by a violent jihadi Islamist objecting to foreign policy.

The obvious fact is that it cannot be known to date whether there were greater forces behind Adebolajo or whether he acted from his own initiative or as 'part of a team' or both. Yet the words, despite the clinically spiteful banality of their message revealed a certain mindset that it is interesting to explore.

Few have actually really looked at what the killer said in relation to why he did it with any coherence because they are afraid these may well be his words and that he meant it. So he can be written off as 'brainwashed', 'indoctrinated' or just 'pure evil' or the supposed true face of radical Islam' or 'fanatical religion'.

Adebolajo's act was pure form of propaganda of the deed amplified by the immediate recording of his acts and words via instant media and the Internet. By all accounts, Adebolajo made no attempt to escape and according to one eye witness seemed to be want to be caught.

The purpose of this act is to make a statement and to terrify people by the idea he means everything he says and to insinuate there will be more in store from those who may or may not be supporting him. As investigations are continuing, it is too early to have a clear perspective on that.

Even so, part of the pose he presented is meant to get people to assume he was otherwise decent but 'driven' to these 'acts of desperation' by British foreign policy. Adebolajo states he believed so. It's no comment on the foreign policy at all since he seeks to punish less the government but "You People".

By that he means the people who don't do enough to stop their government and so it is his job to ratchet up the death tally on 'your side'. The pathetic and maudlin hypocrite's tear is there: if only you would have done something, "You People" would not have received this being visited upon "You".

Adebolajo, in that absurd light, is thus merely an extreme protester, the man just forced to kill by the spectacle of fellow Muslims in a land being killed that he's never travelled to or connected to by his parents country of origin-Nigeria. This is' transferable greivance' (*)  mongering on a cosmic level.

For Adebolajo comes from a strong moralistic Nigerian Christian background. He was converted to Islam only later after having fallen into bad ways with the 'wrong sort' in Romford. This confirms the fact that the terror threat can come from a sort of hatred at the emptiness of Britain's consumer society and anomie.

There is not much to "integrate" into in London. Large areas consist of no binding social fabric much beyond shopping and consuming, a freedom that is considered to blind "You People" to the fact this lifestyle diverts 'them' from looking at what happens abroad in their name.

To bring this point 'home', the terror that Muslims feel in Afghanistan then must be brought home too. You must learn to feel their pain. The failure to act, the failure to stop whatever you are doing right now and think of Him means the Godless shall and must be punished.

The very fact "You People" haven't actually done anything wrong is precisely why you must be punished and why he believes he is an Agent of Allah bringing down His Wrath upon those who turn away from the True Path and merely exist like a mere collection of docile domesticated farm animals.

Hence "You People" are fit only for slaughter until you change both the error of 'Your Ways' and 'Stop the War'. To pretend there is not some perverted form of an Islamic idea of God the Avenger, just as he is in the Old Testament, is to pretend to ignore that this form of outrage is caused by he who is bereft of real faith.

Adebolajo believes he can only force people to ask 'Why? ' through bringing death down on people from out of nowhere as judgement upon them. The twisted logic is that You must be terrified into acting because nothing else will force you to feel the suffering of Muslims in other lands.

This is the sort of sentiment rationalised by hard left apologists for violence in the Leninist tradition. It is a form of nihilism. Only when faced with terror, death and nothingness can unbelievers be forced to face the abyss he alone has faced and to either back his cause, or do what he demands you do-or to die.

Unfortunately, Adebolajo's actions and words were quickly swallowed by hard left apologists for murder and violence at face value. The reason is that because Adebolajo effectively claims he disliked British foreign policy and was prepared to kill and 'suffer' for his crimes, it can be harnessed to other's propaganda.

A crude example of that is Lindsey German of the farcically named Stop the War Coalition that includes support from many on the ex-communist left in Britain who have morphed into apparent pacifists while still using atrocities to ramp up crude hatred and propaganda as opposed to reflection.

After the Woolwich attack, German stated "Unlike with most terrorist attacks or indeed other crimes, we have been able to see film footage of the perpetrators, hear testimony from the witnesses who saw or talked to them. So we know what these men say motivated them".
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German  accepts what he says because it benefits her point. And her status  just parrots the line ( effectively ) 'war is wrong so this what you must expect ' while this terrorist fed her that line ( effectively ) word for word. Though not able to justify murder those like German use it to hammer home the points they want.

The ideology in action here comes from some cosmic calculus of death in which innocent people are never innocent and the universe is dominated only by killing or being killed. The "real killers" and those killed who must be avenged.
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If that ratchets up the arithmetic of death , agony and pain, then, in the higher scheme of things, this is a matter of indifference. The cause is all and those who are to die 'in the name of Allah' have been predetermined to do so once the Evil was started-always, of course, by 'the West'.

NB *The phrase 'transferable greivance'  comes from the philosopher Roger Scruton in The West and The Rest: Globalisation and the Terrorist Threat.