High death toll after Beslan siege

The BBC reports that at least 200 people have died at the school in Russia which was occupied by suspected Chechen separatists earlier this week. This is, of course, the second time the Russian security forces have ended a terrorist occupation with enormous loss of life.

It shouldn’t need to be said (though there are some that won’t believe this anyway) that this action had no justification in Islam, and that we disassociate ourselves from it. In fact, even the leader of the mainstream Chechen separatist movement, Aslan Maskhadov, has condemned it and denied any involvement. Once again, the actions of ignorant people have cast a bad light over the rest of our community – like the kidnappings of the journalists by those idiots in Iraq, demanding an end to the headscarf ban in France, which in fact led to protests against it being cancelled. When will these people learn that they cannot win anything by amoral methods?

(By the way, for anyone who thinks we don’t care about innocent civilians being killed unless they are Muslims, see the entry on Shaikh Qaradawi (3rd Sept). For most Muslims, it’s a complete myth.)