Algerian Journalist Residing in Sweden Yahya Abu Zakariya: The British Policy and Political Conduct in the Middle East Motivated the Perpetrators

The following are excerpts from an interview with Algerian journalist residing in Sweden Yahya Abu Zakariya, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on July 16, 2005.

Abu Zakariya: In principle, conveying political messages through civilian corpses is utterly unacceptable. Under no pretext, religious or political, is targeting civilians permissible. As a journalist living in the West, I say that any bomb that explodes in the Western geography (sic) has a negative effect on Islamic existence (in the West), and on the Muslim citizen who is trying to become a part of the political and economic life, and of the social system in general. As for your question, those who blew up the buses in London are British. In other words, they are second generation - born in Britain, educated in British schools, and may be more fluent in English than others. Are they crazy or not? I don't believe this is the problem. Why did they carry out these operations, which we condemn? There is not doubt that this operation is a entirely criminal. But it was the British policy and political conduct in the Middle East that motivated the (perpetrators) to kill some people, in an attempt to deliver a political message to the British government. How come we have not seen such bombings in Sweden or Norway, or in other Western places? Why specifically in Britain? There is no doubt that Britain's recent political conduct... In recent decades, Britain has tried to correspond with the American policy in the Arab world. Moreover, Britain has done all it could to Americanize European decision making. Whenever Europe has tried to be independent from the American system and policies, Tony Blair in particular has tried to drag all of Europe towards the Americans.