Here are some samples of the reaction of British Muslim “leaders” to the arrests of
local terrorists seeking to blow up airplanes (courtesy of The Guardian):

It’s About Lebanon, Stupid:

But Fahad Ansari, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, was more sceptical. “I think you will get cynicism from the community,” he said. “Over the last few years we have seen many high-profile raids like this plastered over the press to terrify the public. We have seen it time and time again. It has been hit and miss on too many occasions. It is causing a lot of mass hysteria.”

He suggested that the raids could even have been timed to distract attention from criticisms of the government’s stance on the Lebanon crisis.

“There has been so much pressure on the government, it could be a way of diverting attention away from its policy on the Middle East.”

Don’t Make our Young Muslims Mad:

Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra, who has in the past been critical of some foreign-educated imams, said: “We appreciate that our country is under threat from terrorist activity and we want to be part of the solution to this difficulty. We appreciate that the police have an extremely difficult job but there is a risk of adding fuel to the fire and increasing anger, resentment and mistrust and so diminishing cooperation.

“No one would be more worried than our community if these suspects are British-born and educated. We constantly preach that they should not be misled by these terrorists, but if the government refuses to acknowledge the contributions its actions have made, what more can we do collectively?”

Tampons and Tempers:

“One youngster said to me this morning, ‘look, Tony Blair goes on holiday and the next thing you know they close all the airports’,” said Mr Mogra, an imam in Leicester. “I mean, people are asking what kind of liquid are they talking about? What is all this about electronic car keys and women’s sanitary towels? The measures being adopted are making a mockery of the seriousness of the situation.

“The youngsters are trying to laugh it off. Another said that we all know the human body is 75% liquid.

“What I think is, we have to be extremely cautious about the measures being taken. People are cynical about the timing and critical about the way this is being done. People are supportive of the need for security in our country, but they’re fearful of their front door being kicked down by the police at 3 o’clock in the morning.”