A 'completely false' sense of grievance

BBC: 'Mr Blair told MPs: "If we want to defeat the extremism, we have got to defeat its ideas and we have got to address the completely false sense of grievance against the West...'

You see, though, I do feel angry. I am particularly angry right now at the rape and murder of a 15 year old girl and the massacre of her family by US troops. It is an abhorrent crime and has caused widespread rage all over the world. I am angry about Haditha, Falujah, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and all the other horrible litany of names that now stand for something wicked and wrong. I am sad and angry about the fact that every day in Iraq is 7th July, that Afghanistan is becoming yet again a brutalised battleground.

I am angry that despite the '7/7' bombers' videos explaining the July 7 murders were committed because of foreign policy, in Iraq, in Afghanistan - and far more importantly, despite reports commissioned by the Government themselves such as the Foreign Affairs Committee - the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary bizarrely still seem not to want to listen or admit any link between widespread anger amongst its citizens - and its own foreign policy.


If we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear, we get told whenever new freedom-limiting legislation is in play. Why can our leaders not even listen at least, and be seen to humbly re-examine their own policies, and heed the counsel of calm voices who have useful criticism and advice to offer? Why do they seem to stop their ears? Why do so many of us stop our ears? Where does that get us all?

I have read with interest the recommendations of Muslims and other informed experts about how to tackle beligerent Islamic extremism, and how understanding its roots is critical if it is to be rooted out. I have read the earlier warnings that the invasion of Muslim lands, especially if done illegally and without UN sanction and popular support and post-invasion planning, was likely to cause violence and only increase the risks of terror, and bring misery, here and abroad. I see the warnings were true.

Well, we are here now, and cannot turn back the clock; we can only try to make things better. That means listening to all sensible suggestions. What harm can it do? What good might it do? Even making the effort to listen is a healing thing that might defuse some of the tensions that make us all so defensive and yes, so frighteningly angry.

I am saddened that many informed voices, and the initiatives they suggested do not seem to have not been heeded or acted upon, despite promising early publicity.

Because whilst all this anger remains at foreign and domestic policy, more and more people, including me sometimes, miss the real debate. That there is a yet another new totalitarian, nihilistic ideaology abroad and what makes it so dangerous is that it uses legitimate grievances to feed its toxic agenda.

I am more than sad, I am deeply angry, that malice is in our midst, that poisonous paranoid propoganda is spewed, that an ancient religion is perverted by a few into politicised Islamic extremism via an action-heavy, theology-lite conspiracy-theory that preys on the anger and aggrievement of rootless adolescents and makes them into walking weapons of destruction. I am desperately sad that it is widely said that many adherents of Islam are not willing to use the minds God gave them to question how to live to the glory of God in a world where we are still at war with each other, and to work for peace and understanding.

I see that many are in fact doing just this, whether they are Muslim or no, but it is not so widely reported. I see that, yes, there are still those in denial, defensive, still hooked on foolish conspiracy theories and a sense of nihilistic self-pitying rage dressed up as 'concern' for the oppressed.
I am trying not to despair, today, as I read the news.
People like Hassan help.

I am still hoping that there is a better future ahead, a way for us all to honour each other, whatever our personal Gods, as fortunate custodians of a beautiful blue planet full of life and marvellous creatures and organisms, a place that so far seems to be unique in all of endless space.


I am fed up that completely legitimate criticism of current government foreign policy is portrayed by some as sympathy for terrorism and traitorous treachery. It is not. You can criticise the Government and remain a true and honest citizen. I am angry that real anger is now portrayed as' false grievance' and as fake 'victimhood'. I am frustrated that despite the exhortations by politicians to religious men and women, men and women who care passionately about justice, to 'look into their hearts' and 'engage' their minds, those representing me do not seem capable or willing to do the same - though they call themselves wise and well-counselled and even 'guided by God'.

I am sad, I am angry, today, and this blog is where I express my anger and sadness and my personal opinions. On Friday I remembered the dead, and the victims of bombs, here and everywhere else. Now I am thinking about the future, and I am thinking about how to use my life that was spared to listen and to learn and to work for hope and healing.

My leader seems, a year on from homegrown horror, to still be dismissing voices like mine as having a ''completely false sense of grievance.'' No, Mr Blair, there is legitimate grievance and illegitimate grievance. Legitimate protest was seen when millions marched against the Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands have protested against brutal policies in Chechyna, Palestine, Afghanistan. It seems to fall on deaf ears - and so people get frustrated and angry. But only 4 British citizens have so far taken this rage and made themselves into weapons of mass destruction an dsucceeded in killing fellow-citizens. And we do need to hold onto that fact.

I think a young man's sense of uninformed grievance that is hijacked by evil men's propoganda and lies to say that it is right to kill and maim in the name of God is utterly wicked and wrong. But I do not think that sadness and anger at bombings here and abroad is not legitimate. I do not think to say so is to act like a victim. I do not think to want to question the actions done in my name as a UK citizen is foolish, naive, or empathising with terrorism.

I wear no hijab, I attend no place of worship, I am white and well-educated and have a small platform to speak out here on this blog. I have seen close up the violence that al Qaeda-inspired idealogy brings. I have no sympathy for its idealogy, I hate it. I will aways hate it. And maybe, just maybe for a short while, people will read what I say, not because of who I am, but because of where I was a year ago.

I try not to hate those who espouse the murder of innocemts. I try to see the person behind the poison, to stay hopeful and calm. To try to think of the bomber who attacked me as the fatherless child he was before he became the fantatic killer, blowing himself and others to pieces. I try. Because where does hate and anger and vengeance get me? I cannot function if I am as consumed by hate and rage as him, if I swear myself to vengeance and only vengeance. I have to let the hatred go to survive.

I walk in the middle ground, with my questions and my anxieties like the moderate millions everywhere. I listen, I look, I try to learn and to understand. I do not think, after considering carefully for a year, that my personal position and opinions are wholly false or foolish, and I wonder, I wonder, how many more feel like me, and what it will take for leaders to listen to us .

I hope that it does not take thirty years of 'long war' and the endless horrors of bombs exploding in the midst of innocent civilans.

I think is the duty of every man and woman alive to seek justice and healing, to work for peace and reconciliation, to root out and report abuse and extremism, and to challenge and speak out what they find to be cruel and unfair. I do not think it matters what I call God, or whether I call on no God at all but instead look to a common humanity..

If my neighbour's house is burning, I will call the fire service, if my son or my neighbour's son is burning with rage I will listen to him and talk to him, if he is plotting murder and mayhem I must report him and stop him for the greater good.

For this is citizenship, this is civilised, and to frame the debate in terms of 'with us' or 'against us', as 'the Muslims' problem' not 'society's problem, our problem, is foolish, dangerous and arrogant.

Am I my brother's keeper? asked one of a pair of disgruntled warring brothers, Cain and Abel, in a story we have told for thousands of years. Unwilling to listen to the answer - which was of course, yes, you are your brother's keeper and he yours - he murdered his brother, and so the story tells of how division and hatred and war entered the world. There is a fundemental truth in this ancient legend, whch is why we remember it still. In this question is the root of all the cycle of bloodshed that convulses us as a species.

Your brother, my brother is the man on the London tube, the woman in Afghanistan, the child in Pakistan, the baby in Sudan. Religion and nationality shouldn't even come into it. Social problems are not religious problems, they are human problems. They are our problems. Our duty is not just to listen to what purports to be the words of God as interpreted by a few men, but to each other, to all of God's creation, not just to a select few.

If you believe in God, then why not trust that your God is big enough and wise enough to have given you the free choice to honour him with your life and your dealings and your doings? If you do not believe in God, (and I mostly don't, at least, not to a God I find in any organised religion) , you have your own life and deeds which define all that you are and all that will be remembered of you.

One year after I stumbled away, shuddering, from some of the worst that humanity could do to each other, I remember what I have written of time and time again, the voices and hands of strangers asking 'are you all right'. Instinctively reaching out, all of us our brother's keepers.

We're all on the same train, I know this now; we can choose to be suspicious and to attack each other, or we can help each other on our journey. We can refuse the ideaology that says to kill each other is somehow holy or we can hide from the questions, nurse the grievances, feed the anger and make victims of each other and ourselves. Our leaders need to help, not hinder in this, by showing they are capable of the soul-searching they demand of others, and by ceasing to frame the debate we all need to have in such unfair, and unhelpful terms.