Uncertain World led by Simpletons

Published: 16/07/2007

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

Lock away terror suspects, ‘for as long as it takes’ says Ken Jones, the head of the Association of Police Chief Officers ( ACPO), ex- chair of ACPO’s counter-terrorism committee. For this senior copper with cajones, merely increasing the time to question suspects from 28 days to 90 days is sissy liberalism. You get the feeling that he would punch and crack the jaws of civil liberty if it dared to speak up in his presence. On the other hand, Jones needs unlikely allies for this outrageous policy and so he cunningly flatters the judiciary which gets the role of overseer. Yes sure, go on then, intern the bastards, sod their rights. I have a better, most cost effective idea. Send them as a job lot on a prison ship, ready dressed in terrorist orange, to Guantanamo Bay or any of the other secret interrogation sites in friendly countries. Who cares if some are guilty and others innocent? They want to kill us indiscriminately, we can and will jail them indiscriminately in return. How uncomplicated the world is to such men.

We have never before lived through such uncertain, tortuous, complicated and labyrinthine times. And never before, I suggest, has the response to a national crisis been so recklessly simplistic. British history has always been tumultuous and bloody. However, in this chapter the forces at play are multifarious and indefinable, silent and shape-shifting like white clouds on a blue and breezy day. Look up and you see three horses pulling a chariot and as the image is grasped the same cloud turns into a leaping dolphin, next a baby with fat cheeks. Just as hard to fix is the disparate information we have on the men and women who plot to blow us up. And yet everyday we get politicians and commentators, experts in charge of security and policing, ambassadors even telling us they know exactly what is going on, the ‘real’ causes of terrorism and what must now be done to ‘win the war on terror’. Henry James once remarked to his niece: ’I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort.’ We have adopted American simplicity to deal with piles of bewildering complications. And it started with the attacks on 9/11 which Tony Blair declared the worst crime in recent history. The man had no judgement but did have appealing clarity unsullied by doubts.

Blair has gone but left behind many clones who think in firm, unbending certainties. Foolish bravado rings out across the land; untested proclamations are unfurled. It is a remarkable show. Some people are absolutely sure- or they tell us with absolute confidence- that the bombers do what they do because they hate our nightclubs, pubs, free lifestyle, Big Brother and blonde pop singers with cleavages. Nothing at all to do with our foreign policy. Others are equally sure the terrorists are driven mad by the illegal war in Iraq, the occupation of Palestine, the mess in Kashmir and Chechnya. There are no other reasons to consider. Then there are the white European racists for whom this is yet another battle between their high culture and rag-head barbarians. For sociologists the explanations are all to do with deprivation. Yet another wedge has emerged of late providing the exact and self contained answers- young Muslim men who were once drawn to clandestine networks of militant Islamicists have come out as the new seers. They say all evil comes from the brainwashing of young minds, by Imams and ideologues. Like recovering alcoholics their experiences are authentic and so the country is taken with their message.

I can see why strong, straight talking helps to quell anxious people who are seeking reassurance, of course. We all are. The disturbing truth, however, is that while all these reasons are bubbling in the cauldrons, as yet we don’t know what else is in the brew and what cause the mixture to boil over.

I can’t tell you exactly and absolutely why thousands of Muslims the world over, in my neighbourhood too, want to kill and maim others and themselves. I speculate, try to find out, to surmise and imagine, to talk to Muslims from diverse backgrounds, to explore possibilities, to read widely, to argue with people who support the idea of terrorism but I must confess that I am unable to provide definitive answers to the many questions that echo in my head as if it is a wild, empty cave. Defeated am I? No, just more aware than most that to understand what is happening we need open minds substantial research, extraordinary humanity and profundity.

Two months back I was contacted by a female acquaintance of Omar Khayam, a convicted bomber. She was baffled: ‘They are disturbed, really. I am angry about innocent people dying in Iraq too but I don’t want to kill other innocents in revenge. They don’t know how to be men I think.’ So I invited twenty Muslim women contacts- from 18 to 45- for tea and talk.

What a meeting that was. Two wives had hired private detectives to find out if their husbands were involved with sinister groups: ‘Families are last to know. He is out too many hours and not explaining’. Mothers said their sons appeared lost and vacant and regretted forcing them into marriages. Singles were afraid of marrying: ‘ What if I find out I am sleeping with a bomber? They fool everyone.’ Childless Munira said her husband had sexual problems and was now turning ‘suddenly very religious but not in a good way’.

Sara, a trainee psychologist is interested in the chaos within: ‘ Why are some British Muslim men so unable to resist the ideologues while others can? What are the parental dynamics, self esteem, sexual difficulties, problems with their manhood?’

In some Muslim enclaves there is ITALS PREVIOUS WORD a crisis of masculinity. A culture of obedience to family and community diktats means men must crush their desires and selfhood. They turn ruthless. Most have never been in love, or known soft delights except guiltily and with shame. Professional men are afflicted too. I know a malcontent academic, a lawyer and a city banker who see only see a clash to the end between the west and Islam, a clash between two sides of themselves really.

There are indeed highly organised Islamicist networks whose leaders are malevolent. Their recruits, though, may be psychologically weak followers, susceptible to propaganda.

The numbers of convicted Muslim terrorists in our prisons are going up fast and prisons fear the influx. Therapy and psychological work with these inmates would teach us much about what makes such men into psychotics. Experts need to get into their heads and hopefully transform them into democratic citizens. That kind of difficult rehabilitation takes time, patience and courage. The data gathered would enable the government to develop effective, complex, long term strategies to beat this 21st century blight. ACPO’s butch internment solution is beguilingly straightforward, but is only going to further brutalise brutal Muslim men and endanger all our futures.

Published in The Independent