Who's in denial about the London bombs?
Whether they point the finger at Islamic clerics or Iraq, everyone seems to be looking for a foreign factor.
by Brendan O'Neill
After the meeting, Howard said it was the responsibility of Muslim leaders to talk to their young people and prevent the 'merchants of evil' from influencing them (12). From this view, the problem is that the Muslim community is being preyed upon by evil men who want to produce violent fanatics. Some seem to think that if only there was a change of attitude among Muslims, then everything would be okay; one commentator argues that if only the Muslim community treated women as equals, then their young men might not be so blinkered and given to violent outbursts. Here, contemporary nihilistic terrorism is explained away as a consequence of BA - Bad Attitude.
All of these points of focus in the post-bombing debate have one thing in common: they are all about 'them', not 'us'; they all focus on terrorism as a foreign threat rather than as something that might have its origins here at home. Terrorism is seen as being the product of faraway fanatics infiltrating British Muslims' minds, or as a response by young disgruntled Muslims to wars in far-off lands, or as the deadly consequence of an immigrant community than can't get its house in order. This is to displace the debate about the London bombs on to foreign factors - overlooking the fact that this act was seemingly plotted in Britain, and carried out by British citizens. We are in danger of missing the opportunity for a hard-headed debate about the society we live in, in favour of finger-pointing about what occurred on 7/7.
by Brendan O'Neill
After the meeting, Howard said it was the responsibility of Muslim leaders to talk to their young people and prevent the 'merchants of evil' from influencing them (12). From this view, the problem is that the Muslim community is being preyed upon by evil men who want to produce violent fanatics. Some seem to think that if only there was a change of attitude among Muslims, then everything would be okay; one commentator argues that if only the Muslim community treated women as equals, then their young men might not be so blinkered and given to violent outbursts. Here, contemporary nihilistic terrorism is explained away as a consequence of BA - Bad Attitude.
All of these points of focus in the post-bombing debate have one thing in common: they are all about 'them', not 'us'; they all focus on terrorism as a foreign threat rather than as something that might have its origins here at home. Terrorism is seen as being the product of faraway fanatics infiltrating British Muslims' minds, or as a response by young disgruntled Muslims to wars in far-off lands, or as the deadly consequence of an immigrant community than can't get its house in order. This is to displace the debate about the London bombs on to foreign factors - overlooking the fact that this act was seemingly plotted in Britain, and carried out by British citizens. We are in danger of missing the opportunity for a hard-headed debate about the society we live in, in favour of finger-pointing about what occurred on 7/7.
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