Tim,
I saw the letter. Sadly the author didn't attribute the quote, "though not all muslims are terrorists, seemingly all terrorists are muslims".
Attributed to Sir Iqbal Sacranie, head of the Muslim Council of Britain.
I think that this plot, as with so many others, shows what a lamentably, crushingly, dangerously stupid idea "multiculturalism" is. I'm all for tolerating other religions, encouraging community spirit based on the ties that bind people, be they race, home town, sexuality, or whatever. But Britain has A - that is, ONE - culture. It is the culture that teaches us to respect one another, that drives us to fight oppression, that makes us proud of our way of life. It is the culture that defeated Hitler. It is a culture that has its roots in a thousand years of jurisprudence, and that takes its references from Christianity. A culture that didn't need the Human Rights Act to tell it how to treat people with decency and respect. Most of all, a culture that welcomes those who seek refuge from hatred and oppression. That very aspect has been abused and distorted by the politically-correct nonsense of "multiculturalism".
"Multiculturalism" sounded like such a good idea to those who dislike Britain's history, because it presented an opportunity to topple our values and even our continued survival as a unique country. Earlier on, someone mentioned how well West Indian immigrants merged into our culture - that's because they were proud to be British while still being proud of their roots. Multiculturalism encourages some immigrants to refuse to integrate. Sadly, it enables a tiny group of people to reject our way of life so totally that they are willing to destroy everyone, whatever their background.
Those people will not succeed because their values are so utterly detestible that ultimately even their own communities will turn on them. For now, we need to make sure that everyone involved is given the fair trial that their own beliefs deny those who they would kill or maim. The police have done a commendable job here - over a year's worth of evidence. Let's put it to use and get these b@$tards behind bars where they can be treated as the common criminal scum they are.
In the meantime, since Bliar is so keen to "rebalance" the criminal justice system, why doesn't he take a look at the immigration system? Rebalance it so that we are denying asylum to purely economic migrants, instead of denying it to people who will be put to death in Iran or Zimbabwe for being gay or being a free-minded journalist. Since this government is so keen on human rights, stop denying them to people who genuinely need asylum and will be grateful, and stop granting free access to our taxes to people who want asylum and will be ungrateful.