...for these poor, disaffected Muslim youth. Really. I weep.

I popped over to the BBC website for my daily ulcer of outrage, and - like the Daily Kos - they rarely disappoint. They are currently running a feature on the poor misbegats of Islam.

Shamsul Gani sits in his home, in the northern English city of Leeds, a proud father cradling his six-month-old son.

I ask him about the three young men from Leeds who carried out the London bombings last year.

"You'd have left your house keys with them and gone away for a year," he told me.

For many people, what motivated the bombers is still a mystery.

But Shamsul grew up with the three - all British Muslims from Pakistani families. (The fourth was a Caribbean convert to Islam.)

Shamsul admires the courage of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the leader of the group, even though he condemns what he did.

That "condemnation" sounds like more of an afterthought on the part of the writer, than the "condemnation" we're supposed to be hearing from moderates all over the world. (My hand to my ear, head cocked to one side, listening: I fail to hear the moderate condemnation.)

"France has betrayed the young people of the suburbs. When you're called Ali you can't get a job. The French don't accept Islam. Politicians promise us mosques and so on, but at the same time they smear us and call us terrorists."

I wonder if it's because the Ali's and the Muhammed's and the Nasser's of France are rioting, raping, and snubbing their nose at French culture? But then again, that's unfair of me to jump to such a conclusion. After all, I'm sure these kids and their families have tried very hard to integrate into European society. Surely it can't be any fault of their own that no one wants anything to do with them...

In a related article, the Beeb gathers quotes from the aforementioned outcasts of society.

From Amran Majid: When was the last time Muslims were shown in a positive light on the BBC or another channel?

Well Amran, probably not July 7th. But that's just a guess.

From Shahed Alam: So, how do we make sure these people do not get captured by extremists?

The first thing would be to treat everyone as individuals. We cannot blame all Muslims in this country for what a minority think.

Shahed - do the majority instead feel like Shamsul Gani, quoted above, who "condemns" the July 7th bombings, but who "admires the courage of Mohammad Sidique Khan"?

In other news, a bomb went off at a Hindu holy site in India, killing at least 15 people. My prayers are with the poor, desperate people who felt driven to such an atrocity by an uncaring, un-understanding society... yeah, right.

Update 9:08pm: I totally forgot to mention all the other great things Muslims do that shouldn't be equated with terrorism.