A THOUGHT FOR NOW - WE NEED TO AVOID OSTRACISING THE MANY FOR THE EVIL DEEDS OF THE FEW.

Kevin Mackenie has a problem with a British woman journalist of Muslim background fronting a Channel 4 News programme on the tragedy which has been inflicted upon the people of the French city of Nice, by a French citizen of Tunisian origins. A man who, we have since gathered, had a significant mental health episode, had a history of being violent, including to his estranged wife and children, and who, we have also been informed, by media reports, used to drink alcohol. In other words, the mass murder, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, has nothing to commend him to Islam as a believer, or a 'true believer.'  

The indications are that he falls into the category of 'rent a fake jihadi' to carry out a grossly heinous act which no self-respecting Muslim would perpetrate; only someone who is damned or who wants to be damned to perpetual hell, if their was such a thing, would atrocities such as these. Full-stop. God or Allah would not contemplate such a heinous crimes and there is no debating what will or would have happened to MLB, if there was such a thing as life beyond death; he and all other so-called 'jihadis' would be consigned to perpetual hell! 

It does not take an Imam or an  eminent Ayatollah to pronounce on this. Nothing and no entity can or would sanctify such evil, or the disrespect that the perpetrator would be showing for their god, by imagining that their god would condone it.

According to the article in the Guardian newspaper, Mackenzie said in in his column on Monday: “I could hardly believe my eyes” when Manji appeared onscreen during the Channel 4 News programme on Friday.

“Was it appropriate for her to be on camera when there had been yet another shocking slaughter by a Muslim?”   

So, why is Kevin Mackenzie taking exception to Ms Fatima Manji, the journalist in question, fronting the news on this tragedy? It would appear that Kevin, who is himself a journalist, is taking exception to Ms Manji presenting the news, because, in his little vacuous mind, the fact that it is allegedly a Muslim who perpetrated the massacre of Nice, makes it some how insensitive and provocative that Channel 4 should have a Muslim reporter, and one who wears a lovely headscarf - the kind you would also see women who are not Muslim wearing - presenting the news about Nice.

If Kevin is going to be silly or, if you will, Islamophobic, then, one might wonder, would it not make more sense for him to eschew such silly gestures and  question whether any Muslim men should be allowed to visit Nice to show their respect and/or report on the atrocity? After all, it was a man who carried out the atrocity. It had nothing to do with the wearing of headscarves - headscarves, not hijab - so why this pointless preoccupation with Ms Manji's headscarf?

It makes no sense, except from an Islamophobic  perspective. Which, sadly, is reflected in the high number of 'Comment is Free' respondents to an article about KM's views, in the Guardian newspaper, by another journalist, Ramona Aly, who is herself Muslim and happens to wear an equally lovely headscarf, which expressed negative views towards the wearing of headscarves by Muslim women.

I am not going to be so naive as to imagine that there are not Muslims who support the gruesome violence against innocent people, which demons like Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel has perpetrated against the people of Nice. Yet, I do not accept that such acts of violence can have any religious validation or can justly be used to achieve any credible religious  objectives. 

The Nice massacre, like that of Charlie Hebdo, that in Wurzburg, Germany, by a young Afghan man, and the many others in France, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Iraq and other countries, are pure unadulterated evil. 

There is nothing religious about them, because, no religious flock would want to be so submerged in the blood of innocent children, women and men. It is therefore inconceivable that the majority of Muslims do not abhor the deadly methods of these devils who perpetrate these acts.  For those who might be seduced to carry out these crimes, they need to know that, irrespective of what any Imam and or religious charlatans tell them, if you shed the blood of the innocent, especially children and women, you place yourself beyond redemption, and beyond the grace of your god, who will not save you, a callous murderer!  

You are also an anathema to Muslims - both religious Muslims and/or ethnic Muslims, because your despicable acts unjustly further expose them to increased suspicions, fears and risks of attacks because of your actions.

When we are fearful, our fears takes over from reason, and good people are perceived as 'bad' and good people do bad things because of their fears. We need to fight to maintain our common humanity and unity, and not give it up lightly or take it for granted. More Muslims are being killed by people professing to be Muslims, than the amount of non-Muslims being killed. This is therefore not a 'war between Islam and other religions.