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Do not slay shoot-to-kill policy

July 28, 2005 ~ 2:29 p.m.

As horrible as it was that an innocent man was shot dead at a London subway station last Friday, July 22, the police have maintained a shoot-to-kill policy.

If the job of the police is to protect us, especially from terror attacks, then who can argue with that? It is almost inconceivable that anyone would cry over a dead �freedom fighter� if such a death would save dozens to hundreds of people.

Look at the evidence presented to the police last Friday at Stockwell station: A man, in the middle of summer, is walking around with a heavy jacket on. He also has a large knapsack. He would not stop when police summoned him.

With 7/7 still fresh in everyone�s memory, and considering that a failed bombing attempt transpired at Oval, just one stop to the north of Stockwell, the day before, any wonder tensions were running, shall we say, high?

It turns out that the man, shot eight times in front of horrified commuters, was a Brazilian. Jean Charles de Menezes probably found the weather, although warm to Londoners, too cool, hence the jacket. Perhaps he did not understand English that well and/or panicked when police came after him. The police were also plain-clothed.

There is no denying the horrible mistake that was made. But, given the anxious state that now exists in the British capital, police did the right thing. If we want to be as safe from terror as possible, then we need to let the police do their brave jobs and not question them when they get it wrong.

Everyone involved all feel terrible about the slaying of Menezes. So do I. For an innocent man to have been shot was the worst possible outcome. But still, the police did their job.

Aussie Muslims do their part

Regarding terror, it is the job of all Muslims to root out the extremists in their midst. As a community, the onus is on them; they are being watched and though it sounds prejudicial, so be it�we are right to do so. (It is not the Christian, Jewish, black or Hindu communities that are planning and carrying out terrorist attacks, after all.)

After the 7/7 bombings, 500 Muslim clerics issued a fatwa, a religious judgment denouncing the terror attacks. But even the influence of a fatwa can only go so far as they are not technically binding on the community or individuals within it.

Just recently, the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils sent an open letter, drafted in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings, to over 200 clerics and imams, admitting that the Islamic community does not do enough to prevent terrorism.

Sheikh Taj Aldin Al-Halali, the chief Australian cleric, opined, �There is a growing and justifiable criticism that we are not doing enough to deal with extremist individuals and groups within the Muslim community.�

I wonder why Londoners, especially Muslims, are not organizing an anti-terror march. There have been significant anti-war marches organized over the past three years. Even the Spanish, in the wake of 3/11, came out in droves to protest terrorism. The Muslim community should be spearheading very public anti-terror protests. There is safety in numbers, after all, so needing the cover of anonymity from hacked-off clerics is no excuse. Why is anti-war cool but not anti-terror? Are we going to allow ourselves to fall victim to dumb-ass political correctness thinking that anti-terror automatically equals anti-Muslim?

But, I very much welcome and praise the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils for their realistic attitude and dearly hope that will become the standard for Islamic community leaders everywhere.

� M.E.M.

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