Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Sympathy? I think you picked the wrong subject.

The Daily Mail is an odd newspaper with a very odd readership (putting it mildly I know) I suspect the newspaper itself thinks it has a finger on the pulse of middle class Britain and all the various contradictions and extreme views that are held by that group. The readership are often lampooned as racist bigots, right wing nutters usually by the politically correct brigade but occasionally by bloggers like me. However sometimes the readership are not so stupid...

Daily Mail.
The wife of the Stockholm suicide bomber Taimour Abdulwahab Al-Abdaly has protested her innocence, saying she did not radicalise him.
Mona Thwany, 28, claims she knew nothing of her husband's plot to bring terror to the streets of Sweden in the run-up to Christmas.
In her first interview since the 29-year-old Luton-based extremist blew himself up on December 11 in a blast that left two injured, she has told how he was a loving father to their children - Amira, four, Aisha, two, and Osama, six months - and adored his pet canaries.
You'd have thought alarm bells might have started ringing with the naming of the son Osama, I know it means lion in Arabic, but as the choice of name in a western country it would go down pretty much as well as Adolf after WW2.
The housewife, who is now in hiding after receiving death threats from the English Defence League, said she would have stopped her husband had she knew he had been plotting a suicide mission for four years of their six-year marriage.
She spoke out after her Romanian grandmother Maria Nedelcovici accused her of introducing Abdulwahab to radical Islam.
The EDL does not issue death threats, they aren't Islamics who get upset over every little thing that upsets them, this looks more like an attempt to get moved by the council and into a new house.

'Taimour disliked things about England - the drinking, the criminality, the robbing. 
'He disliked the decadent side of society here. But he never gave off any clues that he was going to blow himself up.
'Some people say Taimour is a martyr. I don't know whether he is or he isn't.
'All I can say is that I totally condemn terrorism.'
He blows himself up in a terror attack, you condemn terrorism, yet you can't decide if he's a martyr or not? I suspect "not" is the answer she should be looking for. As for the other things about England nobody was making him stay and if they were bothering him why go to Sweden and blow yourself up?
'Taimour was a normal person, a normal Muslim. There were no alarm bells', she said.
If he's a normal Muslim God help us all!
The mother of three is now under police protection at a council house in a secret location after being subjected to a hate campaign on the internet. 
An internet hate campaign, possibly by people claiming the EDL are out to get her? Well I have news for the lady, The EDL think you're an idiot for being Muslim, but they aren't out to get you, those who have attacked you via the internet are not the EDL, nor are sanctioned by the EDL. When the EDL fly planes into buildings, stone women for adultery, hang gays for being gay, blow up tube trains and buses, threaten to kill cartoonists and travel to foreign countries to blow themselves up you might, just might have a need to be worried. As it is, the EDL don't follow the rules of the religion of peace never have and never will, they oppose what she believes and what her husband did, but out to kill her? No.
This was a blatant attempt by the Mail to try and stir up some sympathy for the woman and their censors must have been going into overdrive. Only 19 comments and mostly neutral or in favour, yet I can assure you that there were way more comments submitted, I even tried to get a couple in myself attacking the stories bias. Strangely enough they never made it past the censors, others I speak too also tried to comment and failed to get their views known. Yet in an article about people converting to Islam it's currently at 443 comments.
Now either the story wasn't that interesting (in a sense it's not) or most people are neutral over the subject (they aren't) or the Mail did not like what was being put in the comments (bingo)
Only my opinion of course, but I do know of at least 50 other comment attempts made by various groups affiliated to the EDL who tried (and failed) to correct the bias in the story.

8 annotations:

V4V said...

Great post QM and spot on about the censorship of the comments section. V

JuliaM said...

"When the EDL fly planes into buildings, stone women for adultery, hang gays for being gay, blow up tube trains and buses, threaten to kill cartoonists and travel to foreign countries to blow themselves up you might, just might have a need to be worried. As it is, the EDL don't follow the rules of the religion of peace never have and never will, they oppose what she believes and what her husband did, but out to kill her? No."

Well said. And it seems the 'Mail' moderators are just as partisan as those at 'Comment Is Free', doesn't it?

James Higham said...

Not so much on the topic but the DM readership varies wildly. Many thinking people go there because it is a bit of entertainment, getting outraged over this and that. It's the DM's comments I heed, more than the articles.

Anonymous said...

You have obviously not been on an EDL march - of course they issue death threats and targets why on earth do you think the police turn up to their events - because it is a tea party?
Osama is a very common name in the Middle East. Do you think an ex-pat living in Saudi would choose an Arabic name or stick with something like Peter, Jack etc. instead.
How very, very silly you are.
May be next time you should put your brain in gear before allowing your mouth to drive off with this drivel.
I listened to her interview and not at one time did she ask for anyone's sympathy. She stated her case of innocence in a very calm and rational way, condemned the actions of her husband. What more do you want?

Anonymous said...

There is a concerted campaign being run by the British Government of Black Propaganda against the EDL. It uses the well worn tactic of revealling a little chink of truth on some some story eg the wife of the Stockholm bomber and then incidentaly almost as an aside chucks in an allegation that is not explored concerning another organisation ( in this case the EDL ) The British Government reguarly uses the Daily mail for this type of exercise. I have seen 4 other stories in that paper in the past 2 months of a similar nature.

The establishment is crapping its pants that a genuine patriotic movement has come into existance in the UK. A movement which because it is composed of humans will always be imperfect. Nevertheless the EDL is manifestly not racist, Fascist anti semitic or even politicaly aligned!! No what the establishment is getting so crappy about is that it is an honest movement. And honesty is something they simply dont know how to deal with!!

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Taimour disliked things about England - the drinking, the criminality, the robbing. XX

Well. him and his race/religion/"cultural" group should stop bloody DOING it, and fek off home then shouldn't they?

Quiet_Man said...

Anonymous at 8:59, clearly you haven't been on an EDL march otherwise you'd know exactly where the violence and threats emanate from and it isn't the EDL.
Osama might be a common name in the Middle East, but for a 6 month old child in Luton? Knowing the connotations involved with the name?
Please don't waste my time with that sort of drivel, you clearly haven't a clue about radical Islam, the EDL or the Islamic art of Taqqiya.

English Pensioner said...

If he disliked this country so much, why didn't he simply take his family and go elsewhere?
Strange, for some reason reporters never seem to ask this type of question.