I’ve been thinking about this recently, as most people have. I read an article in the Times today by Alice Miles that made me think about reasons behind the attack, and I’ve decided to post my thoughts. Comments welcome.

Unsurprisingly, my first reaction was anger. I was angry that someone would want to do this to anyone, and that they would do this to my country. When September 11th happened I found myself being annoyed, to be honest, at the reaction of Americans; I thought that they were a little “too” patriotic. But now that somewhere a little closer to home has been attacked, I can understand the American reaction much more clearly.

I found myself beginning to be angered that someone could do this and then think that they were going to paradise because of it, and (and I’m just going to be honest) that I was glad that there was a hell, and that these people were going there. Then I caught myself, and wondered if God would feel the same way, and I thought that no, he probably wouldn’t.

I also heard someone talking about the attacks, and they said “Well, they should just all be deported, really”. But who is “they”? Muslims? People from Pakistan? I made the point to that person that, out of all the millions of muslims, Pakistanis (or whoever “they” were) living in the UK, it was only a handful of them that chose to make these attacks. Besides, many of “them” were born in Britain, have grown up in Britain and are British!

I’ve just heard a piece on the radio about who the bombers were, their backgrounds, and a few clips of interviews with people that knew them (all of whom were surprised). When you hear stuff like that, it makes you realise that these people aren’t the demons they’re made out to be. Of course, what they did was horrific and inexcusable, but were they born like that? Probably not. What’s happened along the way to make them do something as terrible as they did? I found myself feeling sad that otherwise perfectly ordinary people could find it in themselves to kill and maim like they did.