Reports of Talha Asmal becoming Britain’s youngest “suicide bomber” have focused on the 17-year-old himself and on the impact on his family (Shock, grief and dismay in Dewsbury over its own boy bomber, 16 June). If the family themselves had expressed concern beyond their own tragedy, then this has not been reported. Only a friend of Talha’s parents, Shahid Malik, uttered words of sympathy for those killed by the bomber and for their families.
If the former Labour minister’s words are not just rhetoric, he must condemn the action for what it was: an attack against the countries of Iraq and Syria and their respective peoples. It is hypocritical for some to bemoan the recruitment of their youth into vile “jihadi” groups, while simultaneously supporting Saudi and Nato-led wars and covert interventions aimed at undermining and dismembering Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, among others.
The growing number of young Britons who are being recruited to commit atrocities in Syria and Iraq should be a wake-up call for British Muslims to rise against sectarian politics that only serves Islamophobia and the nefarious actions of the US and Israel.
Dr Kamil Mahdi
Exeter University
Sami Ramadani
London Metropolitan University
