LONDON, 17 July 2005 — As the death toll in the London bombings rose to 55 and police finally removed the mangled wreckage of the No. 30 bus from Tavistock Square, the battle for the “hearts and minds” of young British Muslims started in earnest with Prime Minister Tony Blair firing the first salvo at a Labour Party national policy conference yesterday morning.
“What we are confronting here is an evil ideology,” he told delegates. “It is not a clash of civilizations — all civilized people, Muslim or other, feel revulsion at it. But it is a global struggle and it is a battle of ideas, hearts and minds, both within Islam and outside it. This is the battle that must be won, a battle not just about the terrorist methods but their views. Not just their barbaric acts, but their barbaric ideas. Not only what they do but what they think and the thinking they would impose on others.
“This ideology and the violence that is inherent in it did not start a few years ago in response to a particular policy. Over the past 12 years, Al-Qaeda and its associates have attacked 26 countries, killed thousands of people, many of them Muslims. They have networks in virtually every major country and thousands of fellow travelers. They are well-financed.”
Yesterday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair accused British Muslim leaders of being in denial about extremists in their midst, and urged British Muslims to engage with the police and the wider community. Sir Iqbal Scranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, believed by many Muslims as a creation of New Labour, rejected Sir Ian’s remarks and warned that such remarks were dangerous especially in the present climate.
“How do we overcome such atrocities as Muslims?” asked Sir Iqbal. His answer is for the Muslims not to do anything offensive. “We are not responsible for the crimes which have taken place. But we have to share the responsibility for dealing with it so this scourge of evil can be eradicated.”
Dissenting voices in New Labour such as former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who resigned from the government in protest against the invasion of Iraq, continue to link the rise of Al-Qaeda terrorism to the war in and occupation of Iraq.
President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has delivered following the arrest in Pakistan of a head of a madrasa in Muridke, 20 miles north of Lahore, where 22-year-old London Bomber Shehzad Tanweer is believed to have first met Al-Qaeda operatives. Three more men have been arrested as part of a crackdown ordered by President Musharraf following the London bombings.
In Egypt however there has been some setback after Egyptian Interior Minister Habib El-Adly stressed that Magdy El-Nashar, the detained biochemist who was studying at Leeds University and who is believed to have met the four bombers at a local mosque in Dewsbury, “has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda.”
El-Nashar completed his doctorate in February and got an extension to his visa to look for post-doctoral work in Britain. However, MI5 officers are keen to question him in detail on his movements in West Yorkshire; and on the occupants of his flat. There is a suggestion that the flat was rented to Lyndsay Germain, the fourth London bomber. El-Nashar may not have been aware of the plot to bomb London’s transport system, although the British security services are keen to confirm this and thereby eliminate him from their inquiries.
The family of Mohammed Sidique Khan, who detonated the Edgware Road bomb, meanwhile, said in a statement yesterday: “We are devastated that our son may have been brainwashed into carrying out such an atrocity since we have known him as a kind and caring member of our family. We urge people with the tiniest bit of information to come forward in order to expose these terror networks which target and groom our sons to carry out such evils.”
But as the hunt for the mastermind behind the bombings continues, tensions between Scotland Yard and MI6 seem to be emerging.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke yesterday admitted that the security services were aware of a radical suspect who was not put under surveillance.
The Brit suspect, who is of Pakistani descent, is allegedly known to Pakistani intelligence. He came to the UK from either Holland or Belgium by ferry through Felixstowe, and left the country by plane through Heathrow shortly before the bombings. Security forces believe that the London attacks were planned at a terrorist summit in Pakistan in March 2004.
