Terrorism Strikes London
I am angryyyy and frustratedddddd…..I woke up well slept and happy turned on the tv and was appalled to see havoc and commotion on the BBC…as I rubbed my eyes in disbelief I realized that London had been rocked by terrorist attacks-six blasts reported in central London, more than 100 casualties and two reported dead, all of London’s transport was at a standstill and the world was left shocked/frustrated/angry yet again. The first thing I told myself, “Oh! Please Allah Mian don’t let Muslims be behind these attacks, please don’t let it be al- Qaeda.” But of course to my dismay and humiliation it was. According to the BBC, an Islamist website posted a statement - allegedly from al-Qaeda - claiming it was behind the attacks. How sweet!!! I watched a visibly shaken Tony Blair make a statement, he said it was “particularly barbaric” that these attacks were timed to coincide with the G8 summit. That’s an understatement!WHYYYYY?!?! Why have these terrorists high jacked our religion?!? Why are they giving us a bad name!?! What are they trying to achieve by causing death and destruction to innocent civilians?!?! How is terrorism supposed to solve anything?!?! Yes I understand the goal of Al-Qaeda is not mayhem and destruction, for the sake of it, but instead it is to drive out the US from the middle-east, tell these superpowers to stop interfering in our affairs, and return Islam and Muslims to a status reminiscent of the glorious Muslim past…BUT this is not the way to do it. These assholes have misinterpreted Islam (applying selective definitions from the Quran and Hadith to justify their actions) why don’t they understand that by such barbaric actions they are NOT improving the plight of Muslims but instead are harming both Islam and Muslims worldwide. Yes I feel for Muslim freedom struggles in Palestine, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kashmir- we ALL do…YES we have been treated unfairly by these superpowers sp. America and yes the United Kingdom is its biggest ally BUT comon for God’s sake get over it!!!! If Muslims invest all this time/effort/energy/intelligence/money/hard work/dedication toward a positive cause (like education, health, sanitation) instead of causing death and destruction- we would definitely go places. Why can’t we stop pointing fingers at others who have treated us unfairly? Why can’t we improve ourselves? Strengthen ourselves from within?whyyyyyyyy?!?
london attack
posted by Meher at 5:24 PM
22 Comments:
aaarrgghhh(xtreme frustration) to shooossshhhhh(xtreme helplessness)lost cause.vicious cycle.we lose!
3:04 PM
I'm with you on this. Most intelligent people understand that not all Muslims are terrorists.
I really enjoy your blog and reading about your perspective on things. I hope you don't mind my comments.
10:29 PM
I was referred to the blog by a friend, and so far find it very interesting. However, I do have a questions. Just so you know, I am not intending this question to be an attack or anything of the sort. I am honestly looking for answers and hoping you can give me some information.
How is Islam set up and organized? Are there Islamic leaders? A person at the head of the religion? If so, why are they not more vocal in denouncing this militant/extremist activity?
Thanks for your information and interesting blog. Keep it up...
11:13 PM
I truly agree the recent act of Terrorism in London and its media coverage shows that the press dealt with these assassinations as organized and received its meanings with a framework that identified the Non-Muslims as victims and Al-Qaeeda as aggressors. The news and different papers have clearly reported Non-Muslims as victims resulting from Muslim terrorist acts and violence has always depicted and received prominence in media coverage.
Hence the press rather focusing to the “main problem”—the need to fight terrorism and Al-Qaeeda violence—the concerns about the concrete and problematic actions are always distanced. As we all are well aware that news media in violent conflicts is a major concern in the field of political communications and suggesting that Al-Qaeeda is very aware of that and is playing to an international audience. And as always, there is major struggle over who should be cast as aggressor and who as victim. And in media there is always is the tendency to provide a tremendous amount of coverage of one’s own victims and relatively little to those from the other side and it also shows how ones victims were killed. Victims for the other side remain, for the most part, anonymous statistics. Also the dramatic languages and visuals develops hatred towards the enemy and hence television being the most powerful vehicle by showing bloody images, screams and wounded images. The most important factor is news which is extremely important to the cause of war, but there contribution is almost nothing towards establishment of peace and it is because there is a constant need in the media for unwavering drama. “Ongoing negotiations rarely make for riveting news stories. When progress is being made both sides have an interest in keeping the details secret. When talks break down, on the other hand, antagonists are all too eager to turn to the news media to blame the other side.
Although the media can provide to be the most powerful vehicle to help the terrorism and violence acts by emergeing broad consensus in both societies in support of a peace process; the news media could become important agents for reconciliation. Editors should invite journalists from the other side to contribute both news and editorials. This will definitely be beneficial for both societies and lowering the level of sensational coverage in both sides would also make a positive impact by creating a calmer political environment. But unfortunately media is not contributing its efforts for a peace negotiations and both sides continue to play their usual role of “fanning the flames of hatred”.
6:19 AM
sometimes i feel so frustrated and helpless, that i really cant find anything coherent to say!
so a big
aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrgh!
u get?
8:54 AM
could you pass this to your friend Haroon with regards to his recent blog Well I am impressed what you had to say in your blog. But the journey you are awaiting for after graduation will be a long and arduous one - one that might be ever continuing, but is nonetheless worth pursuing and ultimately rewarding. La lotta continua – the struggle goes on. I just want to remind, what I often remind myself, that no one has yet perfected the art of human appraisal. Always remember that it is not your aptitude, but your attitude, that determines your altitude.
9:41 AM
Its sad to see some people really have no depth! Hope you understand...WHY?
9:43 AM
Bomb blasts in London. Blair’s speech very, very reminiscent of Bush’s Crusader-like speech after 9/11. Stuff like “our values will win over their values”, recasting it in the whole ‘clash of civilizations’ mode.
Will this end? Seriously debatable. It’s becoming a perpetual cycle. Ironically, most perpetrators are not really one of those typecast hard core Muslims, and the whole al-Qaeda network operates like a “venture capitalist firm”. I think Jason Burke called it that. When we were profiling individual attackers, most of them were educated, secular humanists who were completely unIslamic in behavior but felt they were waging a war against the oppression of Muslims not because Islam prescribed it, but because they believed that what was happening (the whole dependencia framework and that's a whole seprate argument) was wrong.
The organization of the Al-Qaeda network lends currency to such the label of a firm. There are three layers to the group- core, a network of co-opted groups and an ideology. The core is a dozen or so radical activists apparently (including bin Laden) who gravitated towards Afghanistan as a base and set up camp there. The core is not monolithic in terms of methods, tactics and religious and political beliefs but their main function is to provide training, expertise and resources for the second element. The second layer involves scores of militant groups who are linked to bin Laden’s core. They are not all created by him or obliged to him. Most of them have multiple lines of logistical support. They view him as one source of support for the piecemeal struggles they are waging in their own lands and not all of them care for his vision of an international struggle (e.g. GIA, Indonesian Lashakr-e-Jihad, and the Palestinian resistance). The last element is inclusive of the militants who have gravitated towards al-qaeda on purely ideological basis particularly following 9/11. The “Al-qaeda” itself seems to provide a facilitative function to plans individual militants and activist groups have already launched.
I’ve let go of my resentment against Islam, because it’s illogical to link it to causality. It doesn’t make people bomb buses anymore than it makes people actively carry out wife abuse. These elements would have existed regardless of whether Islam was there or not; at most we can blame Islam for giving them rhetorical legitimacy with the layman. Which is why I don’t subscribe to the view that education will stop terrorism. Most of the masterminds are educated, rational people, who have been once part of the “civilization” they are now fighting. To trivialize the issue to the extent where the claim becomes “they do it because they are illiterate and don’t know any better” is a weak argument.
The cultural relativism implied in comments such as “Why can’t we stop pointing fingers at others who have treated us unfairly? Why can’t we improve ourselves? Strengthen ourselves from within?whyyyyyyyy?!?” simplifies the basis of the inequalities, deprivations in the developing world that drive individuals to commit such acts because they operationalize the problem as a western grand plan to destroy muslims world over (half truth/half incidental). Improving ourself is no guarantee of automatic fulfillment. The world is hardly a self-help haven. That said though, education, exposure and awareness could potentially make a difference to the third element of the group as much as it could to all of us, in choosing the battles we fight, and in taking on as much resposibility for improvement on home ground as on taking a stance internationally.
2:46 PM
And the backlash begins:
British Muslims were issued with a stark warning to stay indoors today, amid fears of reprisals following the London bombings. Islamic Human Rights Commission chairman Massoud Shadjareh appealed for calm and condemned the bombings. He said he was “very concerned about a backlash” and called on British Muslims to “remain vigilant and calm and stay indoors”. He said, “IHRC is advising Muslims not to travel or go out unless necessary, and is concerned that women should not go out alone in this climate.” Reuters- Daily Times Friday 8th July 2005
11:26 PM
Excellent..excellent points:
"And in media there is always is the tendency to provide a tremendous amount of coverage of one’s own victims and relatively little to those from the other side and it also shows how ones victims were killed. Victims for the other side remain, for the most part, anonymous statistics. Also the dramatic languages and visuals develops hatred towards the enemy and hence television being the most powerful vehicle by showing bloody images, screams and wounded images. But unfortunately media is not contributing its efforts for a peace negotiations and both sides continue to play their usual role of 'fanning the flames of hatred'."
the media plays a pivotal role and has a tremendous reponsibility to the public...but unfortunately i see a serious lack of responsible reporting sp. the american media in general and fox news in particular...sorry jarrar ;)
11:34 PM
Moizza: "Which is why I don’t subscribe to the view that education will stop terrorism. When we were profiling individual attackers, most of them were educated, secular humanists who were completely unIslamic in behavior but felt they were waging a war against the oppression of Muslims not because Islam prescribed it, but because they believed that what was happening was wrong."
CORRECT they were educated, they seemed secular in behavior because we were told they were seen drinking etc but I don’t think they sacrificed their lives for a purely humanist/oppression is wrong ideology. I think even though some seem secular in their behavior they carried out their actions in the name of Islam for the false guarantee of a ticket to heaven( in exchange for their supposed sacrifice for the Lord= their version of jihad)
I think education is our only hope and i dont mean a phd in physics or chemistry but education about our own religion...about Islam…I feel if Muslims in general and sp. us Pakistanis stop being all "oooo weee hai hai Quran ko upper rakh do...ohoooo bayadbi ho gaeeee..." bla blee bloo and actually get that its a BOOK God sent us to READ and not put in our homes as a decoration piece on the top most shelf we can find in our homes we might just get it! we might just get that terrorism is not and cannot be condoned by Allah.
“Why can’t we stop pointing fingers at others who have treated us unfairly? Why can’t we improve ourselves? Strengthen ourselves from within?whyyyyyyyy?!?” these comments express my personal frustration and anger ( we = all of us Muslims because I feel we are all in this together) they are not meant to oversimplify the inequalities or deprivations that are a tragic fact and definitely do exist; frustrations that drive people to commit terrorist acts because they believe the west to be oppressive, pro Israel, anti-Muslims.
“Improving ourself is no guarantee of automatic fulfillment.” True but nobody promised us a rose garden…our only way out is through education about our own history and religion and improving/strengthening/bettering ourselves from within. Of course easier said than done but it’s a start. Yes, education, exposure and awareness will make a difference to us as a group to, as you correctly said, “in choosing the battles we fight, and in taking on as much responsibility for improvement on home ground as on taking a stance internationally.
12:01 AM
Haroon: i just cant get over that fact that you are still in high school...you are tooo damn bright..
"Illiteracy is the highest in the Muslim world, and poverty is rampant in most of the Muslim world. Our religion has been hijacked by a small minority of extremists and fundementalists, who view the world from a prism of intolerance and hatred.Times have changed, we must accept this fact and challenege the misadventures of the foreign powers in our affairs in a totally different manner. Step one would be to reject militancy altogether, to build upon our cultural and social institutions, and to breath life into a common Islamic Market, where there are no tarrifs and our journalists have easy acess to travel across borders of the Muslim world"
brilliant idea!!!!
p.s thanks for the books!!! i really appreciate it...
12:05 AM
sakina: i am seriously scared cos i dont know how and when this will end..it truly is a vicious vicious cycle...
sana:we are totally on the same page and i agree that "The Quran repeatedly states that we r to attack only those who have harmed us" but these fundamentalists believe that we(Muslims) have been attacked/opressed/taken advantage of/mistreated time and time again by the west...and there is some truth to that...so they believe the west started this "war against the muslims" so now all is fair...they think that the west didnt care about "our" innocent civilians so why should we...case in point Palestine, Chechnya, Bosnia, Kosovo etc...so they have a point BUT this is NOT the way to resolve ANYTHING!!!!!!terrorism is not the answer...
khizzy,nahz,han: i feellll ur frustration and fear!!!
jarrar: please dont say we lose!!! comon you are supposed 2 b MY pillar of strength!!!why are we reversing roles!?!? me no likey!!
aries: why would i mind your comments?!?!on the contrary..i welcome all point of views ALWAYS :)
12:19 AM
Stoker: okay first of all big FAT disclaimer..the info below may seem/is over simplified...only cos I want to answer your question as best I can without giving you too much info and confusing you...here goes
In Islam there is suppose to be no separation between religion and state, as it is supposed to be a way of life and therefore strives to attain unity between belief and practice, between individual ethics and social ethics, between religion and life. Therefore in the very beginning with the advent of Islam came the idea of the caliphate- the caliph was selected by a committee and held political/economic/spiritual authority over all Muslims.
The caliphate took shape with the commencement of the Islamic state initiated by the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Madinah, and it continued to exist until it was abolished by Mustapha Kemal Attaturk in 1924, and the title has since been inactive. Scattered attempts to revive the Caliphate elsewhere in the Muslim World were made in the years immediately following its abandonment by a newly secularized Turkey, but were not successful.Although there were many factors that led to the fall of the caliphate, the major ones were the socio-economic degradation of the Muslim societies in general, as well as the occupation of Muslim land by external forces.
So as of today there is no head of religion...many Islamist movements have argued for the necessity of re-establishing the caliphate, whose head will possess political, military, and legal standing as the global leader of the Muslims. However such an initiative has not gathered practical support in the Muslim world as it is not easy to unite over 50 different countries under a single institution.
I believe all muslim nations have denounced terrorism in general and the recent blasts in london in particular,as terrorism is totally unislamic and against everything Islam stands for, as it is a religion of peace and forgiveness...thank you for your comments...I hope I was able to answer your questions..
3:09 AM
Meher i am really impressed how seriously you reply back to each individual blog-it shows your great potentianl in writing skills. By the way it wasn't written by jarrar rather an Anonymous writer.
3:22 AM
What do you say about Al Jazeera a Qatar based television net work?
3:26 AM
thankx...also i know it wasnt jarrar..that was a private joke
3:32 AM
Haroon: first of all i think you should write a letter to the president!!!! seriously..you have a lotta really good ideas which should be/need to be heard...
secondly i havent started readin the books yet..will let u know as soon as i do...
thirdly its so damn ironic that "The Americans themselves have created this infinitely-legged ocatapus known as 'Islamic terrorism' in our world. It was the American foreign policy immediately after the invasion of Afghanistan in '79 by the Soviet Union, which, let there be no doubt, created and flamed the flames of religious fanatacism. Taliban & Co. and it's ideological offshoots (Al-Qaeda,etc). This has caused the militanization of not only Afghani society but also of Pakistani society."
america is suchhhh a hypocritee!!! they talk about democracy when they support dictatorships all around the world when its convenient for them to do so,they talk about freedom,liberty, equality,good and evil while they continue to colonize the world one nation after another... beginning with the colonization and genocide of american Indians...to the recent "operation liberation iraq" while racism runs deep and is rampant in their own country...
"We control about 60% of the world's resources and constitute to about 1/6 of humanity. Yet, our total share in global trade is only around 7%." we have so much potential...we really do need to get our act together and NOW
9:57 PM
i dont have access to Al Jazeera..never watched it...what are your views about it!??!
12:20 AM
berry berry interestingggg!!!!
2:13 AM
"Mr Blair told MPs there would be "profound shock and anxiety" at the news that the suspected suicide bombers were British. Detectives believe at least three British men of Pakistani descent died carrying out the first attacks of their kind in the UK."
www.bbc.co.uk
UFFFFFF...Muslim and Pakistani....
just perfect!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2:48 AM
will do!!
10:31 PM
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