Mayor Ken Livingstone's Statement. Been close to tears for 24 hours ....

... here's what tipped the balance.

Says it all.

The Skin

Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life.

I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others - that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail.

In the days that follow look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential.

They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They don’t want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.”

Full text at:
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/dcdfe116-ef08-11d9-8b10-00000e2511c8,dwp_uuid=46d6f5a8-d260-11d8-b661-00000e2511c8.html

to run their countries without interference from the west.

perhaps Livingstone should be listening to his own words.

eloquently. Oh, to have an english speaking President . . .

He's been a critic of Blair and once called Bushco the "most racist U.S. administration" ever.

I think that a more rational analysis leads to two conclusions:

1) They are bitter about Western interference in their countries, and the extreme poverty and lack of opportunity these have created.

2) They are led by extremist religious dogma that strictly divides the world into THEM and US, with their brand of Islam being "the will of God". (Along this same line of thought, and connected with #1, they might also be nursing a grudge from the Crusades...)

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Absent #1, they might "hate" us, just the way the Christians "hate" all the wrongdoers in the world...(I meant "love" the wrongdoers...or do they love whom they want to persecute and badger and imprison? I dunno, it's too confusing for me.)

Anyway, my point is that if it were not for the interference and the injustice visited upon them by the West and by America in particular, they might not like us and might condemn our lifestyle but would not be quite as likely to throw themselves into the jaws of death to fight us way over here.

and the west's policies in the Middle East. He has also been one of the fiercest defenders of the Muslim community in Britain. Most of the criticism I have seen of him on the DU is simply ill informed.