Arab News : UK Terror Plot: Muslim Leaders Speak Out

UK Terror Plot: Muslim Leaders Speak Out

Mushtak Parker | Arab News | August 13, 2006

LONDON — Downing Street yesterday rebuffed an open letter signed by a group of prominent British Muslims to Tony Blair strongly urging the prime minister to change his foreign policy regarding the Middle East and Afghanistan and warning that the policy is putting civilians at increased risk in the UK and abroad.

This comes in the wake of last Thursday’s foiling by British police of an alleged terror plot to blow up 10 planes departing from UK airports en route to major US cities using liquid explosives smuggled on to the planes disguised as soft drinks. Some British officials warned that the plotters had intended “mass murder on an unimaginable scale.” Police arrested 24 suspects, of whom one has been released without any charges.

According to local reports a spokesman for Blair, responding to the letter, stressed: “We should always remember that the terrorism affecting the West today has blighted Muslim countries for several decades. It certainly predated our decision to support democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq and of course the Sept. 11 attacks. Our foreign policy is focused on supporting the people of those countries in their desire to live in a democracy just as we enjoy it in the UK.”

However, the government has been at pains to stress that of all the major world leaders, Blair has worked tirelessly to get a peace settlement in the Middle East and to promote democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, Downing Street confirmed that Blair “stands ready” to meet Muslim representatives when he returns to the UK from his summer break in Barbados at the end of the month.

The British government has praised Pakistan’s role in pre-empting the terror plot, but privately politicians stress that Islamabad has still got to do much more to counter the danger of extremism in its midst, which is allegedly nurtured in some of the madrasas (religious schools) dotted around the country. Rashid Rauf, arrested on Friday by Pakistani officials, is related to Tayib Rauf, 22, who is one of the alleged plotters arrested in the UK and whose assets have been frozen by the Bank of England. Both are reported to have attended the same madrasa in Lahore as Shehzad Tanweer, one of the 7/7 bombers in London. Pakistan has also warned MI5 of an Al-Qaeda link to the alleged London terror plot.

The letter, whose signatories included Labour MPs Sadiq Khan (Tooting), Shahid Malik (Dewsbury) and Mohammed Sarwar (Glasgow Central); Dr. Muhammed Abdul Bari, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain; and peers Lord Patel of Blackburn, Lord Ahmed of Rotherham and Baroness Pola Uddin, could not have been more to the point.

“Prime Minister,” started the message. “As British Muslims we urge you to do more to fight against all those who target civilians with violence, whenever and wherever that happens. It is our view that current British government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the UK and abroad.

“To combat terror the government has focused extensively on domestic legislation. While some of this will have an impact, the government must not ignore the role of its foreign policy. The debacle of Iraq and now the failure to do more to secure an immediate end to the attacks on civilians in the Middle East not only increases the risk to ordinary people in that region, it is also ammunition to extremists who threaten us all.”

The letter goes on to stress that attacking civilians is never justified and urges the prime minister to redouble his efforts to tackle terror and extremism and change “our foreign policy to show the world that we value the lives of civilians wherever they live and whatever their religion. Such a move would make us all safer.”

The letter, unprecedented in British Muslim politics, is already being read by some analysts as the emergence of a distinct Muslim lobby in British domestic politics, akin to the Israeli lobby in Washington and the UK.

This may be premature given the diversity and complexities of the British Muslim demography. There is also a fear by some observers that the continual portrayal of Muslims as victims may precipitate a backlash from both other ethnic and faith minorities such as the Hindus, the Afro-Caribbeans and the indigenous White British communities. Recently, a right wing UK Hindu group urged fellow Hindus to demand the same privileges and attention from government agencies as Muslims are getting.

Already there are signs that the letter, although described by Lib-Dem MP Vince Cable as “moderate”, has attracted a mixed reaction from the political establishment. Cable warned that there was “a danger it (the letter) might give some comfort to the kind of people who say: ‘Well, change your foreign policy or we’ll blow you up’”. This suggestion was strongly denied by the signatories.

Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells was even more blunt stressing that no government would “formulate foreign policy on the basis of a threat that maybe a part of the population won’t like it and will resort to terrorism. We live in a democracy where Parliament makes decisions and the people have an opportunity, during general elections, if they don’t like the government, to get rid of it.”

Herein, perhaps, lies the challenge for Muslims in general living in the West — the challenge of fully participating in the political process and trying to change government policies and people’s attitudes through peaceful parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means.

UK Home Secretary John Reid speaking to chief constables yesterday warned against complacency and self-congratulation, and said: “The initial targets — the main suspects — have been successfully apprehended, but all of us know that this investigation hasn’t ended.”

However, some politicians and community leaders are wary that the government and police may have overreacted in their response to disrupting the alleged plot.

They are too aware of the public outcry and the negative publicity and fallout following the police raid against the two Muslim brothers in Forest Gate in June which resulted in one of the brothers being accidentally shot and which turned out to be a false alarm. They are also aware of the tragic shooting by police of Charles de Menezes after the failed 21/7 attack against the London underground. De Menezes, in a catalog of police errors and misunderstandings, was mistaken for one of the then alleged terror suspects.

As such Muslim leaders have reacted cautiously to the police action in the latest alleged terror plot. Leading human rights lawyer and chair of the Muslim Council of Great Britain’s legal affairs committee Khalid Sofi, speaking to the BBC, said that the Muslim community had felt “shock and disbelief” at the arrests.

Muslims would fully support and welcome the police action if the security services had indeed disrupted a genuine terrorist plot. But it was important any evidence against the suspects was presented to their lawyers as soon as practically possible.