Nostalgia in England

I'm spending a week in England, mostly in Oxford, maybe London, so I won't be blogging again until I'm back. But do please continue the discussion!

Guest blogging by Anoushka Marashlian

Anoushka is a friend of mine from Oxford, and a Middle East expert. She wants to share her thoughts on the London bombings. I also invite you to follow and participate in the on-going discussion about the attacks in a previous posting of mine.

Thursday the 7th of July started off as a pretty uneventful morning. The only difference was that I was running a little late. I should have left home by 7.15 latest but it was 7.30 and I was still waiting for a train. For some reason I was pretty knackered that morning and dozed off on the train en route to King’s Cross. I get the Piccadilly Line every morning to King’s Cross where I change and get the Circle Line to Farringdon. It was about 8am that someone on the train gently tapped me on my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see an old friend of mine with whom I had lost touch with. It was great to catch up and the journey seemed more pleasant than the usual grind. I think it was about 8.10 that we got to Gloucester Road and we were told that there was a defective train or something and we were advised to get off. We were told that we could stay on the train if we wanted to but it was likely there would be delays down the line. It was a split second decision and my friend and I just got on the Circle Line at Gloucester Road. With hindsight it is now surreal to think that we went past Edgware Road and Kings Cross literally minutes before the bomb blasts. About 2 minutes after we passed Kings Cross out train was stopped in the track between Kings Cross and Farringdon. People had absolutely no idea what the problem was and I remember some where cracking jokes about the deficiencies of the London Transport system and how ill equipped it will be to meet the demands of the Olympics. Only a day before London had won the bid to stage the Olympics in 2012. I was sat on the train thinking damn I should call work and tell them that I am stuck in the train and will be running late for working. The time recorded on my mobile phone was 8.54.

I got into work at 9.10 and it was very slowly that things started to fall into place. It is strange that when you are in the middle of an event it takes much longer to make sense what is going on around. People watching the drama of the day unfold on their TV screens probably had a much better idea of what was going on than people working in the city that day. Increasingly, news started to come in via news wires and it became clear that this was no power surge but a major terrorist incident. The site of the No 30 bus with its roof blown off was the image that brought London to a standstill. Suicide bombers had transported their agenda to the streets of London and a sense of fear and uncertainty prevailed. Businesses came to a halt and it was clear that with the transport system totally suspended city workers would have to find alternative means of transport. I was very lucky that my boyfriend also works in the city since I certainly didn’t want to be alone in London that day. We walked about an hour and a half from the city, reflecting on the events of the day and trying to make sense of the senseless loss of life. It very easily could have been either of us or one of our friends who make that daily underground journey.

The question raised by the London bombings is why would five seemingly ‘normal’ British Muslims resort to taking their lives and the lives of innocent bystanders on the underground? The answer in part lies in the autocratic systems of the Middle East, in the madrasas of Pakistan and in the halls of the American Congress and the British parliament. Although Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestinian are a major part of the problem I think it would be unhelpful to view the radicalisation of Muslim youth simply through this lens. If we are to tackle and defeat the threat in our midst, then I believe it is necessary to incorporate the Muslim community who will be instrumental in preventing such outrages from occurring in the future.

The attacks have it seems strengthened rather than diminished support for Blair's Middle East policy which in turn is likely to reinforce the Prime Minister's resolve to stay on course in Iraq.

When Nature Calls

Do you need one of these? Click on Indipod, the movie...

Male friendship

Heard on SVT Gomorrow Sverige this week on the topic of male friendship: (translated freely)

Reporter: "So what is male friendship? Is it different from female friendship?"
Male 1: "We don't talk that much. We can just sit quietely."
Male 2: "Yeah, for example: 'This is a good song.' 'Yeah.' 'This [food] was tasty.' 'Yeah.'

Death among us

Today it was confirmed that it was indeed suicide bombers that committed the atrocities in London. It's a very scary thought that there are people walking among us who are willing to die for their cause. A cause which most of us wouldn't even call a cause but just an expression of madness. However, even if it is madness the sad truth is that these events have been instigated by a number of reasons and situations, causes that will never justify what happened but which can give a partial explanation as well as point to solutions.

With the confirmation that the responsible for the attacks were born and raised in Britain (and British citizens) comes the realisation that solutions must also be found at home, not just in the Middle East or further away. It's an internal and a societal problem. It's not enough to chase terrorists who are plotting terrible deeds but also to stop terrorists in the making.

In an op-ed in the New York Times a few days ago, Peter Bergen attempts to explain why British society creates terrorists. He points mainly to the young age profile of British Muslims (a third are under 16), unemployment (22 % in the 16-24 age group), and poor integration into society. This makes them prone to extremism. Bergen also points to polls that have shown that British Muslims are angry. 80 % equate the war of terror with war on islam, and 13 % said last year that a terrorist attack on the USA would be justified (however, it did not ask about terror on British soil).

In his article Bergen goes on saying that many British potential terrorists could easily come to the States as they are British citzens and don't need any special visas. He finishes with, but doesn't stress this point enough, that hardening visa regulations or introducing stricter rules and checks on other aspects of life, is one way to deal with it, but one which does not solve the deeper problem of certain groups' structural segregation, not just in Britain but globally.

In a way, even though these tragic events overshadowed a very important summit, G8 on Africa and climate change, it was perhaps "good" that it happened at this particular time (if it had to happen), since the reasons for such atrocities are intrinsically linked to the equalities of the world. We cannot address terrorism without looking at our societies and the injustices that exist, be they social, economic, religious, etc. And we need to do it together. Britain (or any other state subject to terror) cannot turn inwards, and especially not in this case since the responsible didn't come from the outside.

Thomas Friedman, in another NYTimes op-ed, writes that it takes a village to get to the root of the problem: "the greatest restraint on human behavior is never a policeman or a border guard. The greatest restraint on human behavior is what a culture and a religion deem shameful. It is what the village and its religious and political elders say is wrong or not allowed." He also says "if it's a Muslim problem, it needs a Muslim solution". That is true but I'd like to think that the rest of the global village has a part in it too.

Turkey here I come

I'm off on vacation in Marmaris, Turkey, and will be back on July 9th. Won't be doing any blogging from the playa!!