If Osama’s top lieutenant Ayman Al-Zawahiri has a satellite antenna atop his cave, he is no doubt celebrating with a glass of stalagmite juice at the way British Prime Minister Tony Blair has played right into his hands.
After all, from the dastardly doctor’s perspective, who needs to radicalize disgruntled young British Muslims when Blair is doing such a fine job of it all by himself?
At first, the government’s reaction to the July 7 and 21 attacks on the capital was measured and inclusive. Blair’s getting together with Muslim community leaders to ask advice on dampening down extremism was admirable, as were his meetings with opposition party leaders.
But then he goes and spoils it all by unilaterally announcing drastic measures in the name of keeping the country safe, measures that are not only likely to prove counterproductive but will change the essence of free, democratic and open Britain for ever.
“Let no one be in any doubt. The rules of the game are changing,” said a peculiarly gung-ho Blair before departing No. 10 for his annual place in the sun, a luxury denied to his police and security forces during this time of crisis.
Perhaps you think I’m being melodramatic when I tell you it’s time to write RIP on the tombstone of what was once arguably one of the world’s finest democracies and respected bastion of human rights, civil liberties and free speech. That is if Blair manages to implement his new “rules” — a recipe for a “them and us divide” — in the face of mounting opposition.
The prime minister’s wish list includes giving new powers to the police to hold extremist suspects without charge for up to six months along with the ability to deport foreign residents suspected of terrorist links without recourse to the courts. And if their homelands practice torture or the deportees may face the death penalty upon their return... then tough.
How many innocents are likely to be caught up in this wide net and, consequently, how rightfully angry are they and their families likely to be as a result of such nondemocratic and extrajudicial practices?
Such measures contravene the EU Human Rights Charter, which Blair has promised to opt out of should it threaten to interfere with is goals.
Further, Blair wants the ability to close down mosques, proscribe Muslim groups and throw out dissident clerics. The authorities are already studying the writings and sayings of three firebrand clerics as a prelude to charging them with treachery, while a further nine are scheduled for deportation.
Indeed, as many as 500 Muslims, including bookshop owners, teachers, website managers, and writers, have already been nominated for an enforced ride to the airport.
But Blair hasn’t only set his sights at foreign residents. He wants Britons to be subject to terrorist control orders, which include shackling and house arrest, while nationalized British subjects may be liable to being stripped of their nationality.
Worrying, too, is his intention to criminalize anyone deemed guilty of “condoning, glorifying or justifying” terrorism not only within Britain but also without.
The argument against this is that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and if this were to be applied retrospectively then ideological supporters of the South African anti-apartheid movement, the IRA and the leadership of East Timor — just a few examples — should all be locked up.
Shami Chakrabarti, director of the National Council for Civil Liberties, ominously explains the implications of such loosely drawn up parameters in yesterday’s Guardian. “Such a law could criminalize all kinds of debates that have nothing to with direct incitement,” she writes.
“Readers of this newspaper may have to be more careful at dinner parties. Writers of this newspaper...it doesn’t bear thinking about...”
The prime minister has admitted that he is battling against “an evil ideology” so in that case he is pitting his nation against ideas and not a tangible, visible enemy.
Frankly, in the 21st century, this is a war that cannot be won. Not unless the government plans to shut down international communications, ban satellite transmissions, terminate the Internet, close Britain’s ports of entry and burn books and tapes.
Blair’s drastic new measures are not going to dampen down hatreds but are far more likely to elicit the reverse effect. The next step could entail using thought police. In the US, officials already have the right to covertly investigate the reading habits of library members.
Newly proscribed Islamic groups, such as Hizb ut-Tahrir, described by all as a nonviolent organization, is intent on fighting its banning in the courts. But what happens if it fails to be legally reinstated?
Will its members simply shrug their shoulders and wander off into the great blue yonder?
Or will they, seething with resentment over the unfairness of it all, simply go underground and, lacking a political channel, metastasize into something less benign?
Sad to say, but Blair has lost the plot. His authoritarian approach won’t work and, on the contrary, will fuel more hatred against Britain’s policies at home and abroad. By banning Muslim groups, closing mosques and either incarcerating or deporting clerics, he is foolishly creating new enemies in an attempt to keep out the old. Not only that, he is unwittingly giving free publicity to extremist ideologues and also to hitherto little known groups.
As a Briton, I am appalled by Blair’s approach, obviously designed to ward off detractors who accuse the prime minister’s foray into Iraq as a contributory factor toward the London blasts.
Instead of following an “offense is the best form of defense” strategy, isn’t it time the prime minister listened to his own intelligence community, which long ago predicted that Britain would be a target for terrorism due to its occupation of Iraq.
But then we know the answer, don’t we? Far easier to heap the blame on a nebulous evil ideology even if this means pitting sections of the nation against one another in so doing.
With religious and race hate attacks having increased by 600 percent since the London blasts and one in every five British Muslims having been the recipients of verbal or physical abuse, it’s little wonder that more than 60 percent of Muslims are contemplating quitting the country for good. The British National Party, currently capitalizing on the anti-Muslim/anti-Asian climate must be laughing up its sleeve.
