I’m listening to the BBC’s Five Live now as more and more people call in to tell their stories of the day in London: the moment of the attack, not knowing what was happening, escaping danger without the knowledge of how great the danger was, spending hours walking, just walking, not sure how to get home…. Yes, this reminds me very much of the rest of that day in New York almost four years ago now.
Musliim clerics gather to limit the issuing of fatwas:
The move is meant to weaken statements by figures involved in fighting in Iraq who ordain violence….
They all also agreed that followers cannot label other Muslims as “apostates”, something groups in Iraq have done to justify attacks against Iraqi police and civilians.
A conference statement said the clerics agreed that an adherent of each of the eight schools of thought “is a Muslim”.
“Declaring that person an apostate is impossible, verily his or her blood, honour and property are sacrosanct,” according to the statement read by Jordanian Religious Affairs Minister Abdul-Salam al-Abadi.
How about issuing one big fatwa against Muslims murdering Muslims… and Britons… and Americans. How about one big fatwa against terrorism?
: And will the Arab street have the balls to condemn the terrorists who just murdered Egypt’s envoy to Iraq? At least Mubarek is calling his murderers terrorists.
President Hosni Mubarak expressed condolences for the death of Egypt’s top envoy in the country, Ihab al-Sherif, and called his killers “terrorists” after al-Qaida in Iraq claimed on Thurday to have killed the diplomat.
“This terrorist act will not deter Egypt from its firm position in support of Iraq and its people,” Mubarak’s office said in a statement carried by the state news agency MENA.
More bomb links as the evening goes on…..
: Here is a very good roundup of London blogs and moblogs from the Wall Street Journal (free link).
: Tony Blair gives an eloquent statement, of course. It is about values.
It is through terrorism that the people that have committed this terrible act express their values, and it is right at this moment that we demonstrate ours. I think we all know what they are trying to do – they are trying to use the slaughter of innocent people to cower us, to frighten us out of doing the things that we want to do, of trying to stop us going about our business as normal, as we are entitled to do, and they should not, and they must not, succeed.
When they try to intimidate us, we will not be intimidated. When they seek to change our country or our way of life by these methods, we will not be changed. When they try to divide our people or weaken our resolve, we will not be divided and our resolve will hold firm. We will show, by our spirit and dignity, and by our quiet but true strength that there is in the British people, that our values will long outlast theirs. The purpose of terrorism is just that, it is to terrorise people, and we will not be terrorised.
I would like once again to express my sympathy and my sorrow to those families who will be grieving, so unexpectedly and tragically, tonight. This is a very sad day for the British people, but we will hold true to the British way of life.
: A friend points to the most emailed stories on Al Jazeera right now:
• Bush falls off bike again
• Dozens killed in London serial blasts
• Car bombs kill many in Iraq
• Study shows hookah health risks
• Will US keep letting Israel sell arms?
Dozens killed by terrorist bombs ranks No. 2. [Hat tip to Tom Coscarelli]
: UPDATE: Sam Richardson emails that I’m being unfair (well, Tom is) with the Al Jazeera snipe. He sends a list of NY Times emailed articles and the bombing comes out much lower there. The reason, he argues reasonably, is that big stories are the least likely to be emailed since everyone knows them (or because there are so many versions, perhaps).
: ProjectNothing has lots of links.
: See Tim Porter on his unread newspapers.
A series of explosions hit buses and subways in London and isn’t it a terrible state of the world when we now have too many suspects in such terrorism.
The entire transit system in London has been shut down. There are reports of the top of a double-decker bus flying off. There are many eyewitnesses, bloodied, telling of very bad injuries and of people trapped in trains. As occurred in New York on 9/11, the phones, land and cell, are all but off.
Here is a directory of London bloggers organized, with irony, around the Underground. As you find bloggers who are reporting, please let us know in the comments here.
Skitz heard the explosions nearby. Norm Geras has started writing about it; he’s updateing here. A Samizdata blogger is blogging from work. The London MetroBlogger was riding the transit system. Command Post is on the case.
Reuters here:
Several blasts hit the underground network and police said there had been at least three explosions on buses in the city.
A source at the Metronet consortium that runs part of the capital’s underground network said “there were three explosions and there have been some fatalities.”
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the blasts had caused “terrible injuries.”
The Guardian is staying on top of the tragedy with Neil McIntosh manning the Newsblog:
1102 The pictures coming in from around the city are truly shocking. Down near Holborn there’s a bus – possibly one of the big tourist buses that are a fixture on the London streets – with its top floor ripped apart. One report talks of the injured being operated on in the concourse at Liverpool Street station.
Times Onlinein London is asking Londonders to email their stories into the paper. It’s report here.
The Sun is covering many angles to the story and is also asking for people to send in their n ews.
Mirror here.
: Eamonn Sullilvan reports on his blog and does what we all do first: He tells his family he’s fine:
I’m fine and I’ve talked to Kathy. Scary stuff because this seemed to have happened on my Tube line, near my work, around the time I would have been there (I’d have left Liverpool Street station around 8:30am). I’m working from home today. Some of the kids take the same Tube line to get to school, but on the opposite side of London. I’ll have to drive and pick them up at school today, along with hundreds of thousands of other anxious parents.
That story times millions.
BEEN THERE: As I came toward New York this morning, I looked over at the skyline, as I always do now. This morning, I made sure there was no smoke. I was nervous about taking the train into the city and decided not to go to the World Trade Center today. I also decided to get into the city before 9am, which seems to be the murderers’ witching hour. And when I got to the city, I called my wife to let her know I had arrived safely; she expects that. That is life anywhere in the world in a world of terrorism.
: I heard Tony Blair listening to the BBC on my Sirius on the way in and just watched him on Reuters raw video. Every syllable, ever glance communicated his personal devestation.
: Many links from Tim Worstall. Many, of course, from Glenn Reynolds. Many on the UK blog aggregator.
