International: For London
Source:
Karima Bennoune A letter to London, written on July 7, 2005.
I, like so many people of Arab and Muslim heritage, have always loved London, since first I visited as a child in 1977.
City of excellent Indian food, of amazing parks and pubs with flower pots in the window, city of 99 flake ice cream cones and gorgeous black cabs and Herman the German busking in Leicester Square and unarmed police officers and Oxford street shops full of cheap silk scarves. London also of the Russell Square area's unparalleled museums and libraries and universities and a million bookshops my Algerian father loved to haunt.
When I was 13, convinced I would grow up to be a stage actor, I spent summers in London where my parents would let me go to the theatre by myself. I watched Paul Scofield and Simon Callow perform in Amadeus at the National Theatre for 50 pence. I will never forget the production of "As You Like It" I saw where a tree grew out of the stage in the Olivier Theatre and sprouted flowers. That was London for me.
I always dreamed of returning to the city. London of the town council building that proudly displayed the number of the city's unemployed to passersby. London of exiles and refugees, of migrants, of protests in Trafalgar Square with dancing Chilean exiles supporting the extradition of Pinochet to Spain or thousands marching against the Iraq War. London of the Underground with the colorful map and easy routes anywhere. My American mother met dad in the city, on a Hyde Park bench, in 1966. London is the only reason I exist.
Abandoning my childhood dream of life in the theater, I became a lawyer and did finally return to the city in the Nineties to work at Amnesty International's International Secretariat for four years. It was a strange time as my father still worked as a professor in Algeria and had received death threats from Algeria's fundamentalist extremist groups in the civil war raging in his country. I took comfort in prowling London's neighborhoods, discovering the East End, Edgware Road's Little Arabia, the balti houses of Brick Lane, the fashionable streets of Chelsea, going to Nicaragua Solidarity events in Tavistock Square, riding upstairs on the number 30 bus and looking out as the street rushed by below, living and working with Britons and people from around the world, Londoners all.
Today the people of this London, on their buses and tubes, in these places: Tavistock Square, Russell Square, the closest tube to Amnesty - King's Cross, Edgware Road, and elsewhere, came under attack in a savage and calculated manner, by a group which at least at first blush claims to be acting in the name of Islam, a religion which is a part of my heritage. There is no god who would sanction ripping the top off a double decker bus full of ordinary people, of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, pagans, vegans and atheists, simply going to work. There is no god who would attack this London. This is not religion, it is politics. And if it is an Al-Qaeda linked or inspired fundamentalist group, this is a fascist, extremist theocratic politics which represents a great danger to all, no matter how wrong those governments such groups claim to oppose often are in their own actions. I recognize that we do not know for sure who perpetrated these crimes yet; but a previously unknown group, Al Qaeda Jihad in Europe, has reportedly claimed responsibility.
With a heart full of love for the city of my childhood dreams, for its diverse and industrious people, many of whom insisted on going to work today anyway, walking miles on foot, I condemn this spree of horror absolutely and totally. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for those trapped for hours underground in tunnels of smoke and darkness. And my heart goes out to those who have spent the day frantically trying to find those they love, and most especially to those who will never find them again.
My so called co-religionists who may have carried out these attacks, if I can call them that, for though proud of my Muslim heritage, I am deeply secular, and they cannot possibly believe in the tenets of a religion which so emphasizes mercy ("rahma"), do not represent me when they issue their manifesto. London represents me and to London today I adhere. I disagree with some British (and American) foreign policy, but that has nothing to do with this. There is no cause, purported or real, which can justify this terror. None. I reject both the crusade and the jihad.
Muslims and Arabs everywhere must in an unqualified way not only condemn these attacks, as many have already done, but actively oppose religious extremist movements within our communities which may foster such acts with their agenda of hate and blood and division. They represent danger not only for London but for all of us. I recognize that both exogenous causes, in the form of support for such ideologies from the West over the years in places like Afghanistan and Egypt, and negative Western policies to the Muslim world such as in Israel/Palestine and Iraq, and endogenous causes in the Muslim world such as absolutism, have contributed to the rise of these angry groups, a serious discussion for another day. But they do not actually represent these legitimate grievances, they stand only for their own pernicious fundamentalist ideology, one that we must reject and denounce and defeat.
Today I feel I simply must state the obvious, that even though it is orally championed by people like the lamentable George W. Bush, the real struggle against terrorism - political violence directed against civilians whether in London, Baghdad, Bali or Algiers - is a progressive, humanist cause and should be vocally defended by progressives, even as we may critique or disagree with the governments terrorists claim they fight against. The struggle to end terrorism is itself a human rights struggle, even if human rights are sometimes violated in its name (another thing we need to oppose). However, this struggle must be carried out in a more sensible and serious way, not used as a political pretext. We also need a related struggle explicitly targeted against religious extremism and fundamentalisms and their causes. The latter struggle is, of course, needed in Jesusland, here in the U.S., too.
Today is not the time to talk much of this as opposed to thinking of the immediate victims. But I know there will be a backlash to come and British friends I contacted today to check they were okay, including one whose husband was trapped on the tube for several hours, have already expressed fear of this. We must stand together, all of us, for fundamental principles of humanity and against purveyors of repression, violence, terror and bigotry, whoever they may be, governmental or non. Even if the perpetrators do turn out to be people who claim to be Muslims, there were also Muslim victims and Muslim doctors who rushed to the scene to assist. I know that my former co-workers at Amnesty International for whose safety I so anguished this morning, will find their work even harder in the days to come. Such a situation may also be a part of what terrorists seek to provoke. It too is unacceptable and will require all our solidarity. But that too is a topic for another day.
For today, I think of one thing mostly. I think that tomorrow when Londoners try to make their way to work, when they make themselves take buses and trains in their wonderful city despite their qualms, my heart will be with them. I know that many millions of Arabs and Muslims, and so many others, feel the same way.
Karima Bennoune
Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law - Newark
When I was 13, convinced I would grow up to be a stage actor, I spent summers in London where my parents would let me go to the theatre by myself. I watched Paul Scofield and Simon Callow perform in Amadeus at the National Theatre for 50 pence. I will never forget the production of "As You Like It" I saw where a tree grew out of the stage in the Olivier Theatre and sprouted flowers. That was London for me.
I always dreamed of returning to the city. London of the town council building that proudly displayed the number of the city's unemployed to passersby. London of exiles and refugees, of migrants, of protests in Trafalgar Square with dancing Chilean exiles supporting the extradition of Pinochet to Spain or thousands marching against the Iraq War. London of the Underground with the colorful map and easy routes anywhere. My American mother met dad in the city, on a Hyde Park bench, in 1966. London is the only reason I exist.
Abandoning my childhood dream of life in the theater, I became a lawyer and did finally return to the city in the Nineties to work at Amnesty International's International Secretariat for four years. It was a strange time as my father still worked as a professor in Algeria and had received death threats from Algeria's fundamentalist extremist groups in the civil war raging in his country. I took comfort in prowling London's neighborhoods, discovering the East End, Edgware Road's Little Arabia, the balti houses of Brick Lane, the fashionable streets of Chelsea, going to Nicaragua Solidarity events in Tavistock Square, riding upstairs on the number 30 bus and looking out as the street rushed by below, living and working with Britons and people from around the world, Londoners all.
Today the people of this London, on their buses and tubes, in these places: Tavistock Square, Russell Square, the closest tube to Amnesty - King's Cross, Edgware Road, and elsewhere, came under attack in a savage and calculated manner, by a group which at least at first blush claims to be acting in the name of Islam, a religion which is a part of my heritage. There is no god who would sanction ripping the top off a double decker bus full of ordinary people, of Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Jews, Christians, pagans, vegans and atheists, simply going to work. There is no god who would attack this London. This is not religion, it is politics. And if it is an Al-Qaeda linked or inspired fundamentalist group, this is a fascist, extremist theocratic politics which represents a great danger to all, no matter how wrong those governments such groups claim to oppose often are in their own actions. I recognize that we do not know for sure who perpetrated these crimes yet; but a previously unknown group, Al Qaeda Jihad in Europe, has reportedly claimed responsibility.
With a heart full of love for the city of my childhood dreams, for its diverse and industrious people, many of whom insisted on going to work today anyway, walking miles on foot, I condemn this spree of horror absolutely and totally. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for those trapped for hours underground in tunnels of smoke and darkness. And my heart goes out to those who have spent the day frantically trying to find those they love, and most especially to those who will never find them again.
My so called co-religionists who may have carried out these attacks, if I can call them that, for though proud of my Muslim heritage, I am deeply secular, and they cannot possibly believe in the tenets of a religion which so emphasizes mercy ("rahma"), do not represent me when they issue their manifesto. London represents me and to London today I adhere. I disagree with some British (and American) foreign policy, but that has nothing to do with this. There is no cause, purported or real, which can justify this terror. None. I reject both the crusade and the jihad.
Muslims and Arabs everywhere must in an unqualified way not only condemn these attacks, as many have already done, but actively oppose religious extremist movements within our communities which may foster such acts with their agenda of hate and blood and division. They represent danger not only for London but for all of us. I recognize that both exogenous causes, in the form of support for such ideologies from the West over the years in places like Afghanistan and Egypt, and negative Western policies to the Muslim world such as in Israel/Palestine and Iraq, and endogenous causes in the Muslim world such as absolutism, have contributed to the rise of these angry groups, a serious discussion for another day. But they do not actually represent these legitimate grievances, they stand only for their own pernicious fundamentalist ideology, one that we must reject and denounce and defeat.
Today I feel I simply must state the obvious, that even though it is orally championed by people like the lamentable George W. Bush, the real struggle against terrorism - political violence directed against civilians whether in London, Baghdad, Bali or Algiers - is a progressive, humanist cause and should be vocally defended by progressives, even as we may critique or disagree with the governments terrorists claim they fight against. The struggle to end terrorism is itself a human rights struggle, even if human rights are sometimes violated in its name (another thing we need to oppose). However, this struggle must be carried out in a more sensible and serious way, not used as a political pretext. We also need a related struggle explicitly targeted against religious extremism and fundamentalisms and their causes. The latter struggle is, of course, needed in Jesusland, here in the U.S., too.
Today is not the time to talk much of this as opposed to thinking of the immediate victims. But I know there will be a backlash to come and British friends I contacted today to check they were okay, including one whose husband was trapped on the tube for several hours, have already expressed fear of this. We must stand together, all of us, for fundamental principles of humanity and against purveyors of repression, violence, terror and bigotry, whoever they may be, governmental or non. Even if the perpetrators do turn out to be people who claim to be Muslims, there were also Muslim victims and Muslim doctors who rushed to the scene to assist. I know that my former co-workers at Amnesty International for whose safety I so anguished this morning, will find their work even harder in the days to come. Such a situation may also be a part of what terrorists seek to provoke. It too is unacceptable and will require all our solidarity. But that too is a topic for another day.
For today, I think of one thing mostly. I think that tomorrow when Londoners try to make their way to work, when they make themselves take buses and trains in their wonderful city despite their qualms, my heart will be with them. I know that many millions of Arabs and Muslims, and so many others, feel the same way.
Karima Bennoune
Associate Professor of Law, Rutgers School of Law - Newark
