July 15, 2005
I learned to speak English in East London, one of the areas of the British
capital that suffered from Thursday's terrorist at tacks. When my parents moved
us to London in 1975, our daily route to work and school on the Underground took
us across the same stations that were attacked. I'm sure many of my friends from
school still live there. My parents trained at the London Hospital at
Whitechapel where many of the injured were taken.
So of course it is very tempting to turn this article into a love letter to
London.
But I am worried that London might not believe my exhortations that the
cowards behind the bombs do not represent me or the millions of other Muslims
around the world who were just as horrified by the attacks as anyone who has
ever fallen under London's charms. The statements from Muslim groups and leaders
that we read whenever a terrorist attack is carried out are getting old and
repetitive and I do not know if anyone is listening any more.
I am worried that London will not believe the condemnations that begin with
"Islam is against these kinds of attacks that target innocent people" and end
with "but we must place them in the context of Iraq and Afghanistan and (any
other place you think Muslims have suffered an injustice)".
That "but" will always be our worst enemy.
And I am even more worried about Muslims in the West, be they in Britain or
Europe or North America where I have just returned from a trip to Egypt and
Syria.
It was exactly 30 years ago actually that my brother and I left Cairo to join
our parents in London. It was an unforgettable arrival for us because our
relatives had bundled us in warm winter clothes – everyone assumed the weather
would be cold and miserable. Instead, we arrived to find London going through
one of the worst heatwaves in its history.
We took the Underground shortly after we landed in London for the first of
many rides on that complex, colourful web of lines that connects every corner of
the capital. Back then in 1975 and until 1982 when we left Britain for Saudi
Arabia, London was not immune to terrorism. The Irish Liberation Army (IRA) had
struck the British capital several times. But their attacks were usually
preceded by warnings called in to the police.
Signs on the walls of Underground stations urged passengers to report any
suspicious packages to police. One summer while we were visiting London,
security alerts led to almost daily evacuations from the Underground.
Now the IRA's violence seems to be confined to intra-movement problems. And
the posters urging vigilance against suspicious behaviour have nothing to do
with the Irish but everything to do with Muslims.
But sadly the Muslims who come under the most suspicion here in the West are
very rarely if ever the cowards behind such barbaric attacks. Instead they are
our brothers, fathers and husbands.
My brother Ehab was one of the 5,000 Muslim men interviewed by the FBI after
the attacks on September 11, 2001. Two years later he and thousands of other
Muslim men were fingerprinted and photographed as part of Special Registration.
That has now been suspended but hundreds of Muslim men were detained after 9/11,
mistreated and released without charge. Hundreds have been deported – for some,
their only crime was a minor immigration violation.
As the terrorists behind these attacks become more hidden or elusive,
ordinary Muslims living and working in the West become more visible. And it is
we who will continue to pay the price for their cowardice. If the statement
claiming responsibility for the London attacks is confirmed to be true, then it
will be yet another group which has strung together a few Arabic words for a
name and a cause they assume will rally the masses around them.
Perhaps if they took the time to ask the masses what mattered the most to
them they might understand that their deranged violence was the last thing they
needed. As London mayor Ken Livingstone aptly pointed out, Thursday's attack was
"not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful, it is not aimed at
Presidents or Prime Ministers, it was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners…
Black and white, Muslim and Christian, Hindus and Jews, young and old."
On the same day as the London attacks, another group which has strung
together a few Arabic words for a name to move the masses claimed to have
executed Egypt's ambassador to Iraq, Ihab Sherif. In this case, this group
claimed not to be representing the masses but their work was apparently even
more momentous. They were defending the whole Umma (global Muslim
community) against Ambassador Ihab's apparent loss of faith.
If these barbarians had watched one second of an interview with Ihab Sherif's
daughter on Egyptian television on Thursday before news of his execution was
announced, they would know that this young woman who was fighting tears to talk
about her father understood more about Islam than all the masked "soldiers of
jihad" collectively.
Who are these men who claim to care about the good of the Umma and of
the Arab world? As Arabs we are burdened with unelected governments and as
Muslims we are cursed with unelected defenders of our interests.
Over the past three weeks in Egypt and Syria, I spoke to many men and women
who are fed up with unelected governments.
What are we going to do with these unelected representatives of Islam?
(Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based Egyptian commentator. She writes a weekly
column for the London-based Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. Her web site is at
www.monaeltahawy.com).
This item is located at: http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2005/07/love_letter