After the bombs, London searching for the root cause of terrorism

Soe Tjen Marching, London

On Thursday, thousands of Londoners were united, gathering in the city center to commemorate the bombings that happened a week before. I still remember the morning of the seventh of July, when my husband rang from his office at the University of London in Russell square, about an explosion in the underground train system (known as the tube): "They said it was a power surge, please don't take the tube if possible".

Not suspecting much, a few minutes later, I went out of our tiny flat in Pimlico. However, when I walked passed Victoria station, the scene was quite chaotic. London had turned into a city of pedestrians and people were puzzled, as all public transport had been terminated. The police were everywhere, sirens were screaming and helicopters were roaring.

I joined a group of people who were standing around a radio belonging to a flower seller in the street. There was talk of bombs and terrorism. People were quite concerned. Here was the face of London, one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world: People from all continents and nationalities -- German, Polish, Chinese, Indian, Australian, African, Lebanese, Indonesian and many more -- gathered and tried to find out what happened to the city they lived in. If this was terrorism, then the victims would have been people of all nationalities, all faiths and backgrounds.

I heard that some underground trains had been bombed and that some bombs had exploded in the vicinity of Russell Square. "I saw a bus bombed. Bodies, limbs, and human debris were splattered everywhere," said a man who was still shaking. I was worried. My husband's office is in Russell Square.

As I was making my way home, people were talking on their mobile phones, trying to contact their loved ones. But unlike the rather silly films like The Terminator or Independence Day, where the whole city was distressed in order to make a bigger impact on the audience, not everyone was in a state of panic: Some people who couldn't make their way to work ended up visiting second-hand shops or enjoying brunch in cafis. At home, I learnt that there had been four bombs: three on underground trains and one on a bus. My husband had heard a huge bang from his office but he was fine.

Every time I am in a bus, I still have an eerie feeling. Danger which seemed far and impossible now has become near and possible. Several times, Londoners have asked: "Why did they do this to us? What have we done to them?" The "us" versus the "them" suddenly comes up so strongly. "Us": the victims and the innocents. "Them": The evil attackers.

Indeed, because of this bombing, some innocent Muslims in Britain have been targeted. The windows of Mosques and houses were smashed, and hate emails were sent to some Muslim organizations. Many Muslims have been frightened of being harassed by other Londoners. It is an irony that the so called victims of terrorism in London have now become a kind of "terrorists" (though in a very small scale), as they have created fear and terror for some Muslims in London, ignoring the fact that some Muslims have also been victimized by the bombs: One of the tubes exploded was in Edgeware Road, a Muslim area of London.

However, this incident cannot be used to generalize the Londoners, as the majority of the people are and have been very tolerant. Most of them have accepted refugees and people from different backgrounds without much trouble. Most of them have lived happily side by side with Muslims. Most of them also opposed the decision made by Blair to go to the war in Iraq and have been aware of the suffering the Iraqi people have experienced.

Nevertheless, some politicians mainly link the events in London with Sept. 11, 2001 in New York, along with the Bali bombing and the bombs in Madrid. This view has been advanced by the like of George Bush, John Howard and Tony Blair to serve as propaganda for their global "War on Terror" without acknowledging that their decision to bomb Iraq has caused so much terror as well.

The aims of both al-Qaeda and some of these Western governments are somehow similar: Both "sides" believe in bombing and wars, both "sides" try to create the impressions that the other is evil and deserves to be destroyed in the name of (ironically) humanity, and both sides are spreading hatred and terror.

Both have used and sacrificed ordinary working class people, to achieve their ambitions, whatever these ambitions are. As Noam Chomsky has stated, George Bush used fear as a tool for his re- election, and had to manufacture another threat to American security to win his Presidency.

Perhaps, the British ambassador to Italy, Ivor Roberts, was right when he stated in mid-September last year that "the best recruiting sergeant" for al-Qaeda was George Bush and that if anyone was happy to celebrate the re-election of Bush, it was none other than al-Qaeda.

The writer is a staff member at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and can be reached smarching@yahoo.com