“You ain't no Muslim, bruv!”
This was shouted by a Muslim bystander in East London’s Leytonstone tube station when a Muslim nutcase stabbed three people with a Stanley knife, one seriously, while screaming “This is for Syria!” The local police tasered the attacker calling it a “terrorist incident."
The important thing is the bystander’s spontaneous, streetwise response, “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv! [brother]”
The hashtag ‪#YouAintNoMuslimBruv has gone worldwide, with Muslims also retweeting “with approval.” A refrain quickly repeated by many defiant Londoners.
Here in the States I wonder if the official Muslim organizations might temporarily dispense with their stock three S’s (shock, sorrow and sadness) and absorb the spirit of this anonymous, angry London Muslim who spoke from his gut.
Obama in his Oval Office speech Sunday night also suggested, more diplomatically, “You ain’t no Muslim, bruv!”
I quote: “If we're to succeed in defeating terrorism, we must enlist Muslim communities…That does not mean denying the fact that an extremist ideology has spread within some Muslim communities. It's a real problem that Muslims must confront without excuse…To speak out against not just acts of violence, but also those interpretations of Islam that are incompatible with [our] values.”