Knowing your own backyard

Like many in the UK, I have spent many hours following the terror attacks on London since July 7th. A part of that time has been spent trying to fathom why the attacks happened and just what caused British Muslims to take on the task of blowing themselves and a good number of their fellow Britons up. And I have not been alone. There have been a number of suggestions, from our Tone's explanation of a the influence of a twisted version of Islam, the suggestion that we have not done enough to make Muslims feel a part of our society, the suggestion that Islam is incompatible with the life style offered by a democratic state, through to the suggestion that it is part of an attempt at World Domination by al-Quada.  These reasons might have substance, but they are incomplete. The real reasons are extremely complicated, and different in subtle ways for each aggrieved bomber or supporter of the policy of jihad.

One of the most useful pieces I have come across is Helen Rumbelow's story in yesterday's Times (30/7/05 - page 24). Rumbelow points out that an explanation has been there for all to see for a while, encapsulated within the pages of novels and short stories about Muslim life in Britian. Included are a short story entitled My son the fanatic by Hanif Kureishi (1993), a book called White Teeth by Zadie Smith (2000) and book called Brick Lane by Monica Ali (2003).

Readers might also like to dip into David Caute's book Fatima's Scarf.

Rumbelow states:

I think these writers — all black or Asian, all either born or brought up in Britain — are trying to tell us differently. Their work reveals exactly why this terrorism was home-grown. Less escapism than reportage, these books show that the rage of the second-generation immigrant is greater than the first. The fictional men who turn against their fellow Britons draw their ire from their experience of Western society, not from their isolation from it.

Rumbelow provides the following chilling lines form Kureishi's story My son the fanatic:

What has made you like this?” his taxi-driving father, Parvez, asks in horror, and Ali replies:
“Living in this country.”
Parvez is shocked. “But I love England,” he says, “they let you do almost anything here.”
Ali says: “That is the problem.”

Full Rumbelow story.