Bomber's sister a nasty piece of work, apparently
An update on my earlier entry on the brother and sister of Omar Sharif who attempted to blow up a pizza parlour in Tel Aviv; I suspected that people would find them guilty even if they were acquitted, and that has indeed happened. Apparently some schoolkids said that she made some comment about being "on Bin Laden's team" while working as a supply teacher at the time of the 9/11 attacks. She is also accused of having told the kids that, if they had any relatives in New York, they were dead.
Well, two things stick out about this. The first is that it's not been the first time that someone has been cleared of a criminal act and smeared by the authorities afterwards. Bob Woffinden, a well-known campaigner on miscarriages of justice in the UK, noted that the police came up with a load of smears against Stephen Downing, who spent well over 25 years in jail after confessing under duress to a murder he didn't commit, in order to justify their actions and clear their criminal officers of any wrongdoing.
The second is that the supposed comments were made while working as a supply teacher. What schoolchildren ever like supply teachers? They're the nasty strict teachers who make you sit and do some stock worksheet, and have a load of rules you aren't familiar with. And the evidence was discounted because of the age of the children involved.
So, it's inadmissible in court. But not in the newspapers, of course. And like the words in the email, the words are ambiguous. A lot of Muslims did not believe Osama bin Laden was behind 9/11 and some still don't. Many saw him as a courageous fighter against Soviet oppression, against Northern Alliance thuggery and later against American imperialism. If someone said then that they were "on his team", it is no evidence that they were involved in terrorism.
The fact remains that it does not prove that she was guilty of this particular offence.
Comments
What schoolchildren ever like supply teachers? They're the nasty strict teachers who make you sit and do some stock worksheet, and have a load of rules you aren't familiar with
We had a supply teacher who let us play chess all day (he was mad keen on it) instead of working. Everyone liked him.
Posted by: Phil Hunt | November 29, 2005 9:00 PM
What is a supply teacher? Is that like a substitute teacher? If so, they were the best. They didnt care and let you do whatever you wanted. I remember when I was in highschool and the meanest teacher in the world, lost both her husband and her mother around the same time so she was gone from school for months. We have substitute after substitute, it was grrrreat!!!
Posted by: Bikhair | November 29, 2005 11:25 PM
Salaam;
I watched a BBCWorld report on her Monday night and was struck by the selectiveness of the reporting -- mind you, I don't know about guilt or non-guilt, not knowing anything more about her -- but it did occur to me that taking things out of context (cherry-picking, as it's called) would make anyone look dreadfully guilty regardless of the facts.
Posted by: b. | November 30, 2005 4:08 PM
Oh c'mon! The words on her email are not ambiguous, they're just carefully written not to give anything away. Seeing as her bro was going away like that, what do you think she might have written about?
You seem to want to believe that there aren't Muslims out there who will blow themselves up in Israel. Seeing as there is constant propaganda about that issue, and even Al-Qaradawi is saying its ok - why does this surprise you?
Posted by: Sunny | December 1, 2005 4:18 AM