Turkey's Prime Minister says four of the recent Islamokazes were Turkish citizens:
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Four suicide bombers who killed more than 50 people in Istanbul over the past week were Turkish citizens, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says, as some in Turkey turned their anger on the United States.[...]
Speaking at the funeral of two police officers killed in attacks on Thursday, Erdogan said it was a matter of shame for Turkey that its own citizens were responsible.
Erdogan also reaffirmed Turkey's belief that the bombers had links with foreign groups.
Groups linked to al Qaeda have claimed responsibility for two attacks on synagogues last Saturday that killed 25 people and two further bombings on the British consulate and HSBC bank on Thursday in which at least 27 people died.
That Turkish citizens were willing to blow up their fellow Turks is bad enough. The rest of the story reveals an even bigger problem. (And yeah, it's from the Reuters "news service", but that means its slanted not fictional. The fact that there are Turks thinking like this is a problem.
Several thousand Turks gathered in Istanbul on Saturday and other cities to protest against the bombs and what some said was the underlying cause of the attacks -- the United States and NATO member Turkey's close links with the world's only superpower.[...]
"People think what's happened in Istanbul was a result of America's policies in the world," said one demonstrator in Ankara who asked not to be named. He said it was dangerous for Turkey to be close to the United States, whose invasion of neighbouring Iraq was deeply opposed by most Turks.
A placard carried by a demonstrator in Istanbul read "We know who the murderers are" under pictures of U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
That's right, radical Islamic terrorists carry out suicide bombings on Turkish soil, but whose to blame? Why Bush and Blair of course! Those meanies made al Qaeda mad and they just couldn't help themselves; the only possible reaction was to blow up innocent Turks.
Not only does play right into al Qaeda's hands, but it strikes me as a peculiar type of bigotry. You usually see this type of bigotry flowing from Western Leftists, but it's especially disturbing to see Muslims endorsing the idea about themselves.
Here's what I'm talking about, when people blame Bush and Blair's policies for terrorist groups carried out my extremist Muslim groups, their is a line of thinking that is implicit in these accusations:
1. The foreign policy of Britain and the US embarrasses/angers/humiliates Islamic radicals.
2. The radicals are only capable of one type of reaction: killing people.
3. Ergo, the bombings that followed were an entirely predicable reaction to the foreign policy decisions of Bush and Blair.
4. Therefore, Bush and Blair caused the attacks. (Just as surely as if they'd ordered them.)
It's as if the people making these arguments believe that Islamic extremists lack free will; people talk as if the Islamists are a force of nature rather than living, breathing people who have the ability to choose their reactions. As a result people talk about Bush and Blair's decision to fight the terrorists in the same way you'd expect to hear people talk about villains who blew up a dam knowing that the resulting flood would destroy towns down stream. Just like you wouldn't blame the river for the resulting deaths, those making these arguments refuse to blame the terrorists.
This is a deeply disturbing way of thinking, especially when Islamic nations begin thinking it about themselves.
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