Muslim communities must be treated as allies, not enemies

WASHINGTON: It is an agonizing moment to be a British Muslim. This has been their worst nightmare come true: British-born young men from families that were well established in this country carrying out a suicide bomb attack. From what we know of their lives, one was at university, another might have had a small child, another’s father had a fish and chip business; they didn’t live in ghettos but in ethnically mixed suburbs - the like of which surround many UK towns. In other words, they were unexceptional; until July 7, they seemed to illustrate, with thousands of other Muslims, Britain’s pragmatic multiculturalism.

But the actions of these men have thrown British Muslims into the biggest crisis of their community’s history. It makes of the 7/7 atrocities a completely different narrative to those of Madrid or New York: our enemy is in our midst. It puts the British model of multiculturalism — until now the source of quiet admiration across Europe — under unprecedented scrutiny. Its hallmark — a kind of British indifference, often indistinguishable from tolerance, that leaves people to get on with things in their own way — will be questioned as never before. It was always obvious that British multiculturalism had major inadequacies — particularly pertinent right now are facts such as 70 per cent of Pakistani and Bangladeshi children grow up in poverty — but never before have we had to ask ourselves if the model had a basic design fault.

Already, one senses that the Muslim community is bracing itself for two long and painful processes. Firstly, it will be called to account for how its own children could have taken this path — and without anyone tipping off the police. People are asking each other: “Someone must have known, why didn’t they tell anyone?” Another question follows: “Are there any more out there?”

The Muslim community is being charged with a near impossible task; as one Muslim said to me: “If even the mother of one of these suicide bombers did not know what her son was doing, how can the rest of the community be expected to know?” As another Muslim added bitterly: “It’s no longer enough that we condemn terrorists, we’ve now got to flush them out.”

The perception is that Muslims are being offered a deal: the price of being trusted again is to periodically deliver some scalps. Does that go as far as shopping co-religionists for any indication of heightened religiosity? If your nephew grows a beard and visits the mosque more often, will you now be expected to let the police know?

The second painful process that the Muslim community has already embarked on is desperate soul-searching. As one imam put it to me: “Why has the Muslim community failed in reigning in their own youth and shaping their future? Why have the mosques failed to provide rigorous leadership? We must acknowledge our failure.” Again and again in conversations, the subject which kept cropping up was what one described as “shoddy Islamic theology”.

As one anguished Muslim put it: “What is it about Islam that makes people suicidal? Plenty of people are really angry about Iraq, but they don’t give up their life at 19. There’s a missing link here — what makes a boy commit suicide? It can only be if he thinks that what lies in store for him is better than life - and that’s got to be Islamic theology.

“It will have to change. In particular, the references to violence in the Qur’an have to be contextualized; in a global village, this has to be reinterpreted and that has to be done by our Islamic scholars. New thinking is desperately needed.”

But alongside the heartfelt self-criticism, another issue repeatedly cited is just as important; British foreign policy is a cancer in our community, corroding trust in the British political system and poisoning our youth: “You cannot ask us to contain the anger within our community caused by this country’s foreign policy.” The honesty and new thinking required by us, say Muslims, must be mirrored by the government; it cannot pretend Iraq and Palestine are irrelevant.

The anxiety among Muslims is that this crisis will ensnare a range of issues — some relevant, some not — that come under the rubric that “to avoid terrorism, we must know more about our Muslim communities”. This “integration” agenda was summed up by a particularly intemperate commentator the other day who urged the government to “tear into those Muslim ghettos. Force them to open up. Make the imams answer ... they must become more ordinary.” This could expand into a shopping list of demands, from supervision of mosques, licensing of imams and restrictions on intercontinental marriage, to the state monitoring every aspect of Muslim life.

We — Muslim and non-Muslim — have to be much cleverer than that. There is no point alienating another generation of Muslim men with an intrusive, aggressive state; that will only push more of those poised on the margins into secretive extremism. We have to be very careful to pick the right targets — much of the talk about radical imams is misplaced; most UK mosques are cautious and have lost touch with their younger populations, who look to the internet for inspiration, not the imam.

And we have to shrewdly identify our allies. Our best chance lies within the Muslim community itself — in its own capacity for reform and renewal. That’s precisely why the Sun’s front page on Tuesday demonizing the Muslim thinker Tariq Ramadan was so inexcusable. Here is a man who commands respect across the Muslim world. Here is one of those rare thinkers who can help us plot a way forward for a self-confident Islam securely established in Europe. He is a crucial figure in reaching audiences that non-Muslims cannot, yet the Sun wilfully twisted old quotes to depict him as a supporter of terrorism who should be banned from the UK. This is irresponsible journalism at its scaremongering worst.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.

‘We stand together’

ISLAMABAD: “We are not afraid” is the name of a website that sprang up two days after the London bombings. A London-based web designer was moved by a simple message that appeared on his blog, from a stranger who had written in. He came up with the idea of a site that would allow others to join him in expressing their defiance and revulsion at this terrorist act.

Five days and four million hits later, the site now contains over 5,000 images that people have sent from round the world, and from all faiths, to express their sorrow and determination not to be cowed by these events.

I was in London — the trip had been planned some time ago — three days after the attacks. It is open for business. Buses are working. So is most of the underground system. People are not afraid. They have reacted calmly and with dignity to the terrible events of July 7. They have taken pride in the immense professionalism of the emergency services. They have marvelled at the courage of those caught in the attacks. They have been thankful for the many messages that have poured in from round the world, including a large number from political leaders and ordinary people in Pakistan.

I want people here in Pakistan to know how important these messages are to the people of London, and to our government. London is an international city. It thrives on its attraction for people from all over the world. Some 320 languages are spoken there. It is a second home for many, from Melbourne to Multan. So many Pakistanis who live there have said to me that this attack felt like an attack on them. It was an attack on all those who value human life, and respect others’ beliefs. The different nationalities of the victims reflect this reality.

Some people in Britain, and here, have been worried about what this might mean for the Muslim community in the UK, because these attacks appear to have been carried out in the name of Islam. But whatever the terrorists claim, people in Britain know this is not the true face of Islam. The two million Muslims in the UK are part of the fabric of our society. Muslims enrich the life of London, and our nation. As Tony Blair said on Monday, we were proud of their contribution to our national life before July 7. We are equally proud of that contribution now. It was striking for me how firmly different faith communities stood together following the attacks. Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Jews and Sikhs prayed together and joined hands in a service for the dead in London on Sunday, July 10, and at numerous other events around the country. There has been no general backlash against the Muslim community, and there will not be. Individual acts of violence against Muslims or of vandalism against places of worship will be punished as they always have been.

The police are now following up leads. They have used forensic evidence to identify the likely attackers, in what appears to have been the first suicide bombing on British soil, by British Muslims. There has been much discussion of this in the press, both here and in the UK. But the authorities are proceeding step by step, and will not jump to conclusions. There is bound to be speculation about who else was involved, what links they may have had, and much soul searching about how this could have happened at all. For those in the UK dealing with this, and for those coping with the aftermath of the attacks, the most important thing is to remain calm, and not to prejudge or prejudice an eventual prosecution.

There has also been some speculation in the press that these attacks will change our relationships with other countries. But these attacks were carried out by individuals, not by states. Those relationships will not therefore change. The visa service will not be affected. The co-operation between our two governments in the struggle against terrorism is fundamental to our joint success. It should also be seen as part of a far broader relationship between Pakistan and the UK, which reflects the close ties between our societies, and our deep historical links.

President Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s messages of condolence and condemnation were among the first that Prime Minister Tony Blair received. Both our countries have repeatedly shown their determination to fight against terrorism that has cost lives in Pakistan and the UK. We stand together now.

— The writer is Britain’s high commissioner in Islamabad.