More like this
Bluewater: hated by Islamists and liberals
The beliefs of radical Muslims are similar to those of the chattering classes, says Brendan O'Neill
Why do radical Islamists have such violent hatred for the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent? Last week, Saeed Ghafoor (right) of Southampton pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to threatening to cause criminal damage at Bluewater. He wanted to park three limousines there, packed with explosives.
The 'Crawley plotters' - five men from Sussex who were found guilty last year of conspiring to bomb targets in the UK - also had Bluewater in their sights. So keen were they to bomb the shopping centre that in one conversation recorded by the police, a Crawley plotter was heard saying: "Let's do it tomorrow."
This desire to attack one of the biggest, busiest shopping centres in Europe gives the lie to the notion that radical Islamists are politically minded activists. In fact, they come across as anti-consumerist, anti-hedonist killjoys who want to punish the allegedly greedy, feckless, fun-hunting masses of the UK.
The Crawley plotters also discussed poisoning beer and burgers at a football stadium and selling them to unwitting football fans. They wanted to bomb the Ministry of Sound in London, one of Britain's biggest nightclubs, arguing that "no one can turn around and say 'oh they were innocent', those slags dancing around".
Last year, alleged jihadists, aiming to incinerate more 'slags', planted a car packed with explosives outside Tiger, Tiger nightclub in London on ladies night.
At a time when it is de rigueur in chattering-class circles to slate the young women who get drunk in city centres, and commentators attack the 'cult of consumerism', especially amongst the sort of 'chavs' who frequent Bluewater - 'the most chav-infested place on the face of the Earth', where 'zombies shuffling aimlessly around, making inhuman noises', according to an online magazine that keeps track of 'chav towns' - radical Islamists reveal themselves to be more mainstream than people think.
They appear to be not so much alien outsiders as the armed wing of today's mainstream chav-bashing, slag-obsessed culture. ·
Comments are now closed on this article
Comments
What another silly article by O'Neill. I suppose it hasn't occurred to him that Islamists target places such as Bluewater because they are stuffed with people and their aim is to harm as many people as possible. Those 'liberals' who criticise such shopping cathedrals are aware of the damage that uncontrolled consumerism is doing to the ecosystem and criticise them for that. So there is no connection at all, and Islamists are not part of the mainstream as O'Neill claims, but a dangerous, toxic cult way out on the margins. To claim the two share beliefs is typical of this silly man who seems to get lots of pathetic articles published by he making ludicrous claims that attract attention.
The argument I have with this 'un-holy' alliance between Islamists and Liberals is I doubt if the former really ARE disgusted with our blatant consumerism. It is really one of envy, and the fact that their religion forbids them to participate.
Otherwise why, when given the opportunity, do so many of them choose the USA and the UK as their first port of call when seeking asylum?