The wheel turns
So I’m not quite sure what the make of this now. The terrorists were suicide bombers that were born and lived in Leeds, and were perfectly normal (except that in the last few months their behaviour had changed radically, but apparently that was perfectly normal too. Er. What?). No one is running around like a headless chicken, but people are understandably freaked at the thought Terror in Our Midst! (tm). The problem is this:
1) you need to stay vigilant, the police are saying, and watch out for any suspicious people (as well as suspicious packages, which used to be fine).
2) BUT we also need to make sure that we don’t descend into Islamophobia and racism as a consequence of the attacks.
How is this supposed to work? I’m actually quite confused. How is your average person supposed to watch out for would-be terrorists on a crowded station platform? How do you find the people acting ‘suspiciously’? Oh, it’s easy enough - find the middle-aged Arab man wearing traditional clothing, or the young Arab man looking around. But, wait - that simply involves finding the nearest Arab person and going off on one. He’s not white, and he looks ill at ease, therefore he’s a terrorist. No actual thought required.
I’m incredibly confused as to how Joe Public is supposed to locate these terrorists without descending into racism, stereotypes and Islamophobia. Because you know that it’ll happen. You know that anyone of Asian or Arab descent looking ill at ease in a major public location would immediately be viewed with suspicion. Never mind that they are probably looking ill at ease because they are aware of an increase in racial violence and a bunch of BNP card-carrying thugs are eyeing them; in the eyes of Joe Public, they are Acting Suspiciously. Instant incident.
I don’t think that the public should be more vigilant, actually. I think that such vigilance will simply result in an increase in racial tension. Perhaps not that many attacks, but certainly tension, and that can’t be a good thing in trying times. We have plenty of police around for just this sort of role, and doubtless the new ‘emergency powers’ the Security Services are asking for will be pushed through (which is another outrage, but I will rant about that later). Today you couldn’t move for London Transport Police, which was actually strangely disconcerting. I’m used to neon-clad officers moving through the crowds, but these were uniformed LTP and Met stationed at entrances. Surbiton, Waterloo and Oxford Circus had at least one officer per ten people present. The police presence was somewhat bewildering, but I’m sure I’d get used to it eventually. People staring suspiciously at each other over their morning coffee and paper? Not so much. And we shouldn’t have to.
I say again - it is not the job of Joe Public to watch his fellow citizens. If we don’t have enough police to do the job and we don’t have CCTV and it’s required to ensure our safety - well, that’s a debate, isn’t it? We should sit down and talk about it. Maybe it would be a good idea to install body scanners; maybe not. But it is not a good thing to ask the public to start looking at each other suspiciously, especially when they’re supposed to be looking for potential terrorists. That’s how lynch mobs are formed and wasn’t that the underpinning principle of McCarthyism and the Stalinist terror? The enemy are among us. Make sure to report your son / daughter / significant other today; they could be filthy Red terrorists.
While I applaud the appeals made by prominent British Muslim clerics and scholars today, saying that the British Muslim community should do more to find out why its youngsters are being led to these beliefs in conjunction with the govt tackling extant racial tensions, I don’t think that this can be achieved by denouncements left right and centre. A witch-hunt helps no-one. Instead, I would argue that what is needed is greater communication and stronger links between the different communities in the UK. We don’t need a melting pot to churn out one vision of Britannia, but we do need to foster a sense of belonging. People do not bomb their own homes or communities. They attack that which is foreign and hostile to them. This is no different from the G8 summit, where the tiny minority of anarchists that initiated violence against local people and local buildings were decidedly not local. The vast majority of protestors, especially those local to the area, were respectful and non-violent. The same principle goes for any violent groups in the UK: you don’t attack your own home. You attack that which is different, and hostile, and a threat.
If Britain is truly a place where young people are turning to extremist teachings and becoming suicide bombers, then we must examine why this is happening, or we are all lost. If we react with suspicion and hostility, then we are doing precisely what the bombers and the planners behind the bombings wanted. I’ve lived in a society where you could be denounced at any moment as a dissident or a subversive simply by virtue of my ethnic composition. I don’t want to do it again.
*
Originally linked via mousewrites’s journal, I saw the following comic strip and was amazed. Mark Millar does the G8 summit, July 6th: see it here.
1) you need to stay vigilant, the police are saying, and watch out for any suspicious people (as well as suspicious packages, which used to be fine).
2) BUT we also need to make sure that we don’t descend into Islamophobia and racism as a consequence of the attacks.
How is this supposed to work? I’m actually quite confused. How is your average person supposed to watch out for would-be terrorists on a crowded station platform? How do you find the people acting ‘suspiciously’? Oh, it’s easy enough - find the middle-aged Arab man wearing traditional clothing, or the young Arab man looking around. But, wait - that simply involves finding the nearest Arab person and going off on one. He’s not white, and he looks ill at ease, therefore he’s a terrorist. No actual thought required.
I’m incredibly confused as to how Joe Public is supposed to locate these terrorists without descending into racism, stereotypes and Islamophobia. Because you know that it’ll happen. You know that anyone of Asian or Arab descent looking ill at ease in a major public location would immediately be viewed with suspicion. Never mind that they are probably looking ill at ease because they are aware of an increase in racial violence and a bunch of BNP card-carrying thugs are eyeing them; in the eyes of Joe Public, they are Acting Suspiciously. Instant incident.
I don’t think that the public should be more vigilant, actually. I think that such vigilance will simply result in an increase in racial tension. Perhaps not that many attacks, but certainly tension, and that can’t be a good thing in trying times. We have plenty of police around for just this sort of role, and doubtless the new ‘emergency powers’ the Security Services are asking for will be pushed through (which is another outrage, but I will rant about that later). Today you couldn’t move for London Transport Police, which was actually strangely disconcerting. I’m used to neon-clad officers moving through the crowds, but these were uniformed LTP and Met stationed at entrances. Surbiton, Waterloo and Oxford Circus had at least one officer per ten people present. The police presence was somewhat bewildering, but I’m sure I’d get used to it eventually. People staring suspiciously at each other over their morning coffee and paper? Not so much. And we shouldn’t have to.
I say again - it is not the job of Joe Public to watch his fellow citizens. If we don’t have enough police to do the job and we don’t have CCTV and it’s required to ensure our safety - well, that’s a debate, isn’t it? We should sit down and talk about it. Maybe it would be a good idea to install body scanners; maybe not. But it is not a good thing to ask the public to start looking at each other suspiciously, especially when they’re supposed to be looking for potential terrorists. That’s how lynch mobs are formed and wasn’t that the underpinning principle of McCarthyism and the Stalinist terror? The enemy are among us. Make sure to report your son / daughter / significant other today; they could be filthy Red terrorists.
While I applaud the appeals made by prominent British Muslim clerics and scholars today, saying that the British Muslim community should do more to find out why its youngsters are being led to these beliefs in conjunction with the govt tackling extant racial tensions, I don’t think that this can be achieved by denouncements left right and centre. A witch-hunt helps no-one. Instead, I would argue that what is needed is greater communication and stronger links between the different communities in the UK. We don’t need a melting pot to churn out one vision of Britannia, but we do need to foster a sense of belonging. People do not bomb their own homes or communities. They attack that which is foreign and hostile to them. This is no different from the G8 summit, where the tiny minority of anarchists that initiated violence against local people and local buildings were decidedly not local. The vast majority of protestors, especially those local to the area, were respectful and non-violent. The same principle goes for any violent groups in the UK: you don’t attack your own home. You attack that which is different, and hostile, and a threat.
If Britain is truly a place where young people are turning to extremist teachings and becoming suicide bombers, then we must examine why this is happening, or we are all lost. If we react with suspicion and hostility, then we are doing precisely what the bombers and the planners behind the bombings wanted. I’ve lived in a society where you could be denounced at any moment as a dissident or a subversive simply by virtue of my ethnic composition. I don’t want to do it again.
*
Originally linked via mousewrites’s journal, I saw the following comic strip and was amazed. Mark Millar does the G8 summit, July 6th: see it here.