Misunderstanding the 7/7 bombings

Today is the fourth anniversary of the 7 July 2005 terrorist bombings which took the lives of 52 innocent Londoners and injured 784 others.

In the absence of a full public inquiry into this horrific attack on the British public, we still don’t fully know why 4 British born Muslims believed it was justified to carry bombs onto Underground trains and buses and attack the people of the country they were born in. There is no conclusive proof whether they were controlled by a central control of masterminds, as in the case of Mumbai, or whether these were just 4 angry young men who had been twisted by al-Qaeda ideology they had picked up from extremist websites.

Following the events of 7/7 and the poor handling of its aftermath by the government, the flimsiest of conspiracy theories have flourished and gained cult status via the internet.

One of these these conspiracy theories on 7/7 has been more successful than others. According to this theory, the attacks were not committed by 4 alienated British Muslim but was constructed by the British government (with the help of Mossad and the Israeli government) using controlled explosions in a plan to distract the public from the failures of the war in Iraq and to shore up support for the “War on Terror”.

Like any self-respecting conspiracy theory, this one also comes complete with its own cult film called ’7/7 Ripple Effect’ which you can see in full.

7/7 Ripple Effect, released two years after the attacks, goes much further than just posing questions.

The narrator alleges the four men blamed for the bombings were in fact fall guys in a government plot to win support for the war on terror; they were tricked into travelling to London with rucksacks on that day.

CCTV that shows them arriving in London was supposedly just to incriminate them. The film claims that they were not on the trains that blew up.
It’s alleged the three men blamed for the Tube bombings were in fact murdered by police at Canary Wharf, after government agents set off pre-planted explosives to frame them.

A BBC documentary has also been released which responds to the claims made by 7/7 Ripple Effect which you can see on iPlayer. It uses compelling evidence to counter the conpiracy theory convincingly. It also reveals the identity of the creator of 7/7 Ripple Effect. Meet John Hill from Sheffield, now living in Ireland, who calls himself Muad Dib, after the hero of the novel ‘Dune’ by Frank Herbert. Hill also believes he is the Messiah and George Lucas was made to write Star Wars after being contacted telepathically by the “Force”.

In the absence of a public inquiry and because of the perception of the public being misled and lied to by the government over the Iraq war and its subsequent whitewashing, there will always exist conspiracy theories and credulous crackpots who will believe in them, no matter how much evidence is compiled to show otherwise.

A big fan of 7/7 Ripple Effect is Dr Mohammed Naseem, Chairman of the Birmingham Central Moque and member of the Respect Party .

He has long harboured doubts about the government account. “The Ripple Effect is more convincing than the government statement,” he says.
Dr Naseem made 2,000 copies of 7/7 Ripple Effect for the mosque. At Friday prayers he asked the congregation to raise their hands if they did not accept the government version – nearly the entire gathering did.

Dr “Dancing Cows” Naseem earned his sobriquet for his own home-grown conspiracy theory:

We are in the 21st century. The cows can be made to look as dancing, the horses can speak like humans, so these things can be doctored or can be produced.

One wonders why he isn’t willing to apply the same critical thinking to the conspiracy theories he consumes and peddles in Birmingham Central Mosque.

And given his predilection for them, is Dr “Dancing Cows” Naseem still a Respect Party member after this statement from Salma Yaqoob:

We do not need conspiracy theories to understand the 7/7 bombings. Two of the bombers left video messages explaining exactly why they carried out this terrible atrocity. The government may be in denial about the fact that its war in Iraq encouraged terrorism at home. But we have to face facts.