The high profile arrests of Muslims in recent months over alleged links to terrorist activities in the UK has received a great deal of attention. A familiar pattern is starting to emerge. Reports are released to the early morning news of ‘dawn raids’ on houses deep within the Muslim communities. The media reports little at first, then slowly drip feeds news throughout the day of roads and buildings being sealed off. Armed Special Forces are assembled, sniffer dogs are brought into to look for explosives, and police helicopters circle the area as house-to-house enquiries are conducted. Interviews are conducted with friends and relatives of the arrested who are often adamant that those who have been arrested are law abiding and peaceful Muslims.
This only heightens the media appetite and provides them with sensationalist headlines of ‘my Muslim neighbour is a terrorist!’ or similar themes reported in the press. The lack of concrete information is intended to heighten the sense of fear and foreboding surrounding the arrests within the wider society. The arrests over the past two weeks in Gloucester, Dudley, Birmingham and Luton have all followed this pattern.
The degree of media attention and government comments that these arrests have received has deliberately been high profile. They have served to create a sense of siege and fear within the Muslim community. This has reached such an extent that Muslims have become fearful of talking about issues to one another or frequenting mosques or other places that they regularly assemble in. It has also resulted in a sense of mistrust and caution amongst fellow Muslims.
Of course, this climate of intimidation has been deliberate. In the US, since 9/11 up to 50,000 Muslims have been detained and questioned by law enforcement agencies. Thousands have been deported on the pretext of immigration violations. Within the UK, 529 have been arrested during the same time. Many of those arrested are still in remand with their trial dates yet to be fixed. Of those arrested only five have been convicted of any crime that can be linked to terrorism. Even those that are initially arrested on ‘terrorist’ charges with the full glare of the media usually get detained on lesser charges of immigration or passport irregularities. The majority have been released ‘without any charge’, whilst the western media has remained unsurprisingly quiet in reporting their innocence!
On the back of this hysteria are so-called ‘terrorist groups’ and ‘cells’. Western states have sought to tarnish all forms of Islamic groups, even those who are purely political and non-violent, by linking them to the perceived threat of terrorism and related activities. Almost every article and report in the western media now mentions the dangers posed by ‘Muslim groups’ who operate within the ‘Muslim community’, regardless of whether they are involved in violent means or purely political and non-sectarian activities. In fact, the current climate has been designed to target anyone who calls for the adherence to Islam and involves themselves in political and non-secular activities. The word ‘Muslim’ is interchangeable with the word ‘terrorist’, with it often being reported that suspects have ‘worshipped at a local mosque’, as if that were a crime in itself!
Media reports routinely try and link the Islamic ‘Da'wah’ work done in colleges and universities to the threat of terrorism, by depicting these places as a recruiting ground for ‘militants’ and ‘extremists’. Islamic groups that call upon the legitimate right of resistance to western occupation in the Islamic lands are labeled militant and hostile to the West. Muslim charities and voluntary organizations that provide relief to thousands of poor and suffering Muslims around the world have been scrutinized, their funds frozen, account books investigated and staff questioned. In addition, Imams and the centres that produce them have been closely monitored and pressured into ensuring their curricula and teachings fit western interpretations of Islam.
Those who involve themselves in purely political and intellectual work to maintain the Muslim identity within the West are now also the subject of western vitriol and scrutiny. The Home Secretary recently gave a speech attacking those who seek to secure the Muslim identity, by openly demanding that Muslims in the UK choose between being ‘British or Muslim’.
Clearly, the agenda of the West is to silence all forms of debate and criticism of their policies within the Muslim world; such as the continuing occupation of Iraq and the western backing of dictators in the Islamic lands. Moreover, the tarnishing of non-violent Islamic groups shows the bankruptcy of the West in having to resort to such censorship and mind control over all those who seek to observe the limits of Islam and reject western forms of integration and assimilation.
