British-born
‘jihadis’ have been wreaking havoc at home and abroad for generations, lured by
a heady mix of idealism, romance and rebellion.
July 2007
Armed with
eleventh-hour intelligence, security services were able to foil a conspiracy to
blow up parliament and destroy the government by a fanatical sleeper cell of
religious zealots led by a foreign-trained British convert.
Before
this news causes undue alarm, this thwarted attack did not occur in the
aftermath of the botched strikes in Glasgow and London over the weekend. The
convert in question was not a Muslim and he did not receive his foreign
training in Afghanistan or Iraq.
This
“jihadi” was of the pure-blooded English variety and his name, as every child
learns at school, was Guy Fawkes. Born a Protestant, Fawkes converted to
Catholicism at the age of 16 and went off, in the 1590s, to fight for the
Spanish in the Spanish-occupied Netherlands.
When he
returned to Britain, equipped with the explosives training he had received in
Europe, he became involved in the Gun Powder Plot of 1605 to blow up the Houses
of Parliament, thereby killing King James I and the Protestant aristocracy in the hope of
replacing them with a Catholic monarchy.
The plot
was a reaction to both the harsh anti-Catholicism instated by Queen Elizabeth I and
the so-called Hampton Court Conference, through which the more moderate King
James (of English-language Bible fame) tried to steer a middle course between
extremist Puritans and Catholics. The plot served the interests of the Puritans
very well and set back the cause of Catholic emancipation for at least another
two centuries.
Although
wits have often quipped that Fawkes was the “only man ever to enter parliament
with honourable intentions”, the English have condemned him to eternal
damnation right here on Earth by burning his effigy every year and urging the
world to “remember, remember the fifth of November”. The only thing going for
the poor bloke is that we are all (men and women), in a bizarre twist of
etymology, “guys” now.
Since
September 11 2001, much has been made of the phenomenon of British-born Muslim
terrorists and “jihadis” (possibly coined to rhyme with “baddies”). But there
is nothing new about a minority – even a fully indigenous one – being singled
out for excessive suspicion. As Fawkes amply demonstrates, small groups of
young – and not so young – Britons have been lured by various ideals and the
romance of rebellion to get involved in subversive and insurgent activities at
home and in distant lands for generations.
The
Catholics were probably the first group in modern Britain to be stigmatised
collectively as “the enemy within” for the actions of a miniscule minority – as
well as their association with their coreligionists in other parts of the
world. Another group were the Irish.
With a
name that would befit a modern Muslim salafist organisation, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (aka Fenian), one of the precursors to
the IRA, carried out attacks against British interests in Ireland, Canada
and on the UK
mainland. In Britain,
Fenian’s botched Clerkenwell Bombing in 1864 left 12 dead and 50 injured. In
the 1880s, they carried out a dynamite campaign in which, among other things,
they destroyed Scotland Yard.
Whether or
not the Brotherhood advanced the cause of Irish independence is open to
question. What is certain is that their armed tactics led to the collective
stigmatisation of the Irish citizens of and immigrants to Britain, no matter
how much the Irish community condemned the attacks or tried to distance
themselves from them.
And
British radicals have not just limited themselves to British soil. Much has
been made of the lone British Muslims opposed to British foreign policy who
have ended up in Afghanistan or Iraq. But there are plenty of earlier
precedents of Britons taking up arms to change British foreign policy or for
the glory of a distant cause.
Lord Byron was not just Britain's
most famous romantic poet and dandy who scandalised conservative England with
the tales of his sexual misadventures, including his quest to find homosexual
love in the fabled “East”. Byron's career as wealthy agent provocateur and
freedom fighter has parallels with Osama bin Laden’s mujahideen days in
Afghanistan.
Byron was
perhaps the most prominent of the Philhellenes, volunteers from the European and American
aristocracy who - besotted by visions of classical Greece – took up arms
against the Ottoman Empire in the Greek War of Independence. In 1823, Byron spent an enormous
£4,000 – around £10m in today’s money – of his own money to
refit the overstretched Greek fleet and increase its fighting capacity. But as
he sailed to do battle, his life was cut short by a fever. In fact, it was
Byron's intervention that drew Britain reluctantly into the conflict after the
Ottomans failed to assert their dominance.
While
there has been a tiny trickle of British Muslims going off to fight as “enemy
combatants” abroad, earlier conflicts were like a magnet for the young and
idealistic. The Spanish Civil War in the 1930s drew hundreds of Britons,
including George Orwell. In fact, it is estimated that 2,000
British citizens joined the International Brigades against Spain's as yet
uncrowned rightwing dictator Francisco Franco. Again, this was at loggerheads
with Britain's declared position of neutrality in the war.
After
receiving British backing in the form of the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to establish a homeland in Palestine, some extremist Zionists were unhappy with Britain's more gradualist approach to Jewish
immigration and decided to take up arms against Britain
in mandate Palestine.
One of the most spectacular of these attacks was carried out by the Irgun on the King David Hotel, claiming more than 90 lives. The
Jewish community in Britain felt the heat of the rising tension in Palestine,
in the form of anti-Jewish hate crimes and suspicion.
The earlier
situations of the Catholics, Irish and Jews provide lessons both for the
British mainstream and the Muslim community. It illustrates that we have been
here before and that the situation of contemporary Muslims is by no means
unique. In fact, Muslims can draw some consolation that, by today's more
tolerant standards, they enjoy better protection than previous shunned
minorities. In addition, it shows that, with time and effort on the part of
inspired community leaders, a minority can become well-integrated and accepted.
For
mainstream society, it is important to recall that, despite concerns aroused by
the tiny number of violent extremists, people should not let their fear guide
them into collectively punishing a minority – as has occurred so many times
before – or giving up their hard-earned freedoms to a potentially cynical
political establishment in the name of security.
June 2007 – It is time to dispel the myths surrounding
Muslims – namely, that we are all terrorist anti-feminist teetotallers. Read on
A war on error (2)
June 2007 – It is time to dispel the myths that
conservative Muslims often propagate about 'the west'. Read on
Conversion is not a crime
December 2005 – Muriel Degauque has the dubious
distinction of being the first white European female suicide bomber. Shocking
as this is, suggestions that we have reached a dangerous turning point and that
converts are brainwashed fanatics and their partners are comic-book villains
are unfair to the vast majority of converts and to non-converts married to
Muslims.Read on
A revision of Salman Rushdie’s vision –
We need ijtihadis, not jihadis
September 2005 – Salman Rushdie’s proposed
Islamic Reformation touches on the urgent need for reform in most Muslim
societies. But his vision needs serious revision if it is to work. Read on
Islam and Europe:
Clash and mash
April 2005 – Khaled
Diab and Katleen Maes examine the myths driving anti-Islamic fervour in the EU.
Read on
ã2007 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website
is the copyright of Khaled Diab.
