Eight years on from the July 7 London bombings the British government still has its head buried in the sand, writes Roshan Muhammed Salih.
The 7/7 bombings in 2005 which killed 52 people should have been a wake-up call to the British nation that its war on terror was misguided and self-defeating.
It should have led to a popular uprising against then prime minister Tony Blair who had dragged the country unwillingly into wars against Afghanistan and, especially, Iraq.
But instead 7/7 served as a pretext to demonize the entire British Muslim community and shift the focus from Britain’s own foreign policy disasters. Clearly the lessons still haven’t been learned.
Reasons for the attack
Two of the 7/7 bombers made “martyrdom” videotapes describing their reasons for becoming what they called “soldiers.”
Mohammad Sidique Khan said: “Your democratically-elected governments continuously perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. And your support of them makes you directly responsible, just as I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters.
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“Until we feel security you will be our targets and until you stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people we will not stop this fight. We are at war and I am a soldier. Now you too will taste the reality of this situation.”
And Shehzad Tanweer said:
“What have you witnessed now is only the beginning of a string of attacks that will continue and become stronger until you pull your forces out of Afghanistan and Iraq. And until you stop your financial and military support to America and Israel.”
Tanweer argued that the non-Muslims of Britain deserve such attacks because they voted for a government which “continues to oppress our mothers, children, brothers and sisters in Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya.”
So crystal clear – they did it as revenge for British foreign policy.
Yet instead of heeding the wake-up call and pulling troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan (which would have all but eradicated the terror threat at home), the British continued to support the war on terror. And because they did so that inevitably meant that “Islamic extremism” would continue to thrive in the UK.
7/7 legacy
Following 7/7 scores of “terror suspects” were rounded up, jailed or placed under house arrest without charge or trial.
One of them, Abu Qatada, has just been deported to Jordan after years of being demonized as a “terror threat to the UK.” He was so much of a threat that the British government couldn’t find one shred of evidence to put him on trial.
Moreover, ludicrous anti-terror strategies were concocted which placed the onus squarely on the Muslim community to root out the “extremists” and “terrorists” in their midst.
Political Islam itself was maligned as a conveyer belt to bombing with the aid of government-funded quislings like the Quilliam Foundation.
The security services saw a huge increase in their budgets which they used to spy on and infiltrate the Muslim community. They placed agents provocateurs in their midst and often secured convictions against loud-mouths who talked about “doing jihad” in Britain but never had the means or know-how to actually carry it out.
Meanwhile, the right-wing media promoted figures like Anjem Choudary to demonise the Muslim community as a whole and, conversely, Ed Husain and Maajid Nawaz who served as “model British Muslims” (ie Muslims who were willing to focus on Islamic extremism rather than British foreign policy).
And of course a whole anti-terror industry sprouted up consisting of think-tanks and television pundits who all would be out of jobs if the terror threat actually went away.
Muslim manipulation
As for the Muslim community itself it did progressively get more radical because Muslims could still see the images of death and destruction on their TV screens and they could see through the government’s Islamophobic agenda at home.
They developed an even more pronounced victim complex and retrenched into their own “Muslim identity” which was in conflict with “non-Muslim identity.” This was encouraged by huge amounts of finance pumped into British Islam by Saudi Arabia which is having the effect of “salafising” many British Muslims.
But a further and – as yet little explored – development seems to have taken place since the Arab Spring.
While the British state still remains in conflict with so-called Islamic extremists at home, there does seem to be mounting evidence that it is now attempting to manipulate them to serve their own ends.
So for example, sectarianism is thriving among British Muslims which the government can only be delighted about because it serves to keep the British Muslim community weak and divided. Sectarianism has always been the most viscous tool in the imperialist tool box and sadly Muslims seem to be falling for it.
There is also some evidence that the British government is turning a blind eye to British Muslims who go abroad to “do jihad” in places where the British government wants them to “do jihad” – ie formerly Libya and now Syria. But I guess the government would also like them to die there as who-knows-what they will do when they come back home.
So eight years on from the last major terror attack on British soil the British maintain their policy of focusing on “Islamic extremism” at home but have evolved that strategy to the active manipulation of “British Muslim extremists.”
But of course one thing which hasn’t changed is Britain’s aggressive involvement in the Muslim world. And that means another 7/7 is always just around the corner.
@RMSalih
