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August 30, 2006
We have the construction of the infamous "Jihad Jack" as some kind of terrorist threat to the national community.
Leunig
Jack Thomas has been judged by the courts not to have been a terrorist. In February, a jury acquitted Thomas of the two main charges of providing support to a terrorist organisation. On August 18, the Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that the interview (in Pakistan) was made involuntarily and should never have been admitted by the trial judge. So the Courts squashed Thomas' convictions and he was made a free man. So he is not "Jihad Jack" the the homegrown terrorist.
But the myth of Jihad Jack , fostered by the tabloid media, has taken hold in the community. The media myth of "Jihad Jack" Thomas as a villain enables us to cope with the fear and anxiety caused by terrorism. e need myths to cope with rawness of the 'war on terror.'
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