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General Forum: Current 'Affairs' | | DOES LONDON BOMBINGS WILL HAVE ANY EFFECT ON INDIA BEING PAKIS INVOLVED | |
| Pakistani is a bad word in Britain
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It has been thirty years since I first set foot in London, and I can't help musing over the changes that have been wrought in those decades. You can no longer ask your taxi driver to take you past Downing Street, the men at the immigration counter peruse you much more intently (though they are still as polite), and there is a definite chill in the air which has nothing to do with London's famously gloomy skies and everything to do with how one looks. Until they are reassured that I am a (Hindu) Indian and not a (Muslim) Pakistani, there is a wariness everywhere.
'Paki' has long been a term of abuse in Britain (though not in the United States). It goes back at least twenty years to the days of the infamous race riots. But where it was once mere tinged with contempt there is now more than a little loathing and hatred too.
"Don't be fooled by the apparent normalcy," was the grim warning delivered by a senior figure in the police services, "London has changed after the blasts, and so has Europe." And it all has to do with the apparent role of the 'Pakistanis' in the London blasts. The quotation marks are deliberate since the criminals who carried out the explosions were not really Pakistanis, but British citizens of Pakistani origin. That is a significant difference.
In the past, so the wry quip goes, they were born in Pakistan and would come to Britain for higher studies; today they are born in the United Kingdom but make the trip to Pakistan to finish off their education. My interlocutor may have been speaking tongue in cheek, but I cannot imagine such a comment being made three decades ago.
The old illusion that the terrorists are simply a misguided minority is fast giving way to the new conventional wisdom, namely that the terrorists are simply the most visible face of militant Islam. The second point being hammered away by the security forces into the heads of their political masters is that the most advanced colleges of terrorism, their Oxford and Cambridge as it were, are all in Pakistan. Hasib Hussain, Mohammed Sidique Khan, and Shahzad Tanweer -- three of the four suspects in the London blasts -- were either of Pakistani origin or attended some institution in that country. Other British citizens of Pakistani origin are being questioned in connection with the case.
The three men named above died in the July 7 blasts they are suspected of having set off, and cannot speak for themselves. In the popular imagination, however, the voice of Islamic fundamentalism was heard loud and clear across the Channel in The Netherlands. Muhammad Bouyeri is on trial for murdering Dutch film-maker Theo Van Gogh (a distant relative of the famous painter) because the director had been critical of some Islamic customs in one of his films. (Never having seen the film, I am not sure what the fuss was about.) Confronted with the victim's mother, Bouyeri contemptuously told her that he could feel no pity for an 'infidel.' He followed this with the defiant proclamation, 'If I'm ever released, I'd do the same again. Exactly the same!'
This level of fanaticism is something that the West has not confronted for a long time. Once, the West was content to believe that terrorism was simply a by-product of poverty. That illusion was shattered along with the World Trade Center disaster, and any lingering remnants have been pounded by the London blasts. The terrorists are coming not from the impoverished masses but from the relatively well-off and educated middle class. If you remove poverty from the equation, what is left but religion?
The onus is now on the larger Muslim community to prove that the terrorists are a minority who don't represent the views of Muslims at large. But hard questions are being asked. Will any Muslim cleric condemn the rule that apostasy -- changing one's ancestral religion -- is to be punished with death if the man changing his faith was originally a Muslim? Nobody would have asked any such thing five years ago.
And when Blair -- not the prime minister, but the man in charge of the investigation -- said sniffer dogs would not be sent into mosques, he was widely criticised. That too is a sign of how much attitudes in London have hardened towards Muslims. The attitude is summed up in the words: 'You live in my house, you live by my rules!'
I have no idea if children in 'secular' Britain read the Bible any longer. They do, however, read Harry Potter, and a line from the latest book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will resonate in British ears: 'It is our choices, Harry, that show what we really are, far more than our abilities.' The Muslims of Europe have hard choices to make today.
...By a Journalist.
Posted by: Mr. Vachaspathi V At: 26, Jul 2005 8:35:06 PM IST
Alas,a wrong man has been shot dead for no fault of his. May his soul rest in peace. A life was lost unecessarily.
Posted by: DoBoy At: 24, Jul 2005 12:01:11 PM IST
eMki peLLi subbi chaavuki vachchiMdannaTlu, deenni evaDu chEsi saMbarapaDutunnaa (paakistaanu vaaLLa hastaM unnaa lEkapOyinaa) akkaDivaaLLu panilO panigaa manavaaLLani kooDaa anumaaniMchachchu.
akkaNNuMchi mana dESaaniki vachchE Dabbulu taggipOvachchu.
Posted by: SATYA RAMA PRASAD KALLURI At: 21, Jul 2005 10:19:59 PM IST
MORE AND MORE SUICIDE BOMBINGS IN LONDON.
....
Thursday, July 21, 2005 (London):
Three Underground stations in London have been evacuated following reports of a small-scale explosion at one of them.
The British Transport Police said Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations had been evacuated and emergency services personnel were called in.
"People were panicking. But very fortunately the train was only 15 seconds from the station," witness Ivan McCracken said on a television news channel.
Passengers at Warren Street reported seeing smoke, but police could not confirm this.
There were also reports of shooting at one of the Underground stations. But no casualties have been reported so far.
The incidents come exactly two weeks after bomb attacks targetting three underground trains and a bus in London killed 56 people, including four suicide bombers. (With AP inputs)
Posted by: Mr. Vachaspathi V At: 21, Jul 2005 9:14:36 PM IST
Air India Building and other parts of Mumbai including Jogeswari.
Posted by: Mr. M Kumar N At: 19, Jul 2005 5:10:32 PM IST
I dont think there will be any effect on India. Since past ten years we are facing bombing effects in JK from pak militants.
Posted by: Mrs. shaloo At: 14, Jul 2005 3:04:32 PM IST
LOLZ DOBOY .. I just had my grub at SUBWAY. Had some Frappe too ... Thanx ..
I jsut wanted to know what this threadz all about
Posted by: Malakpet Rowdy At: 14, Jul 2005 2:54:47 PM IST
MR, wlecome to hyd, u hv choice u can talk on any topic :), u can talk on london, india, and pakistan. Please dont forget to hv mirchi in gokul chat, kothi
Posted by: DoBoy At: 14, Jul 2005 2:52:12 PM IST
I havent understood the title of the thread. Pakistanis involved in what?
Posted by: Malakpet Rowdy At: 14, Jul 2005 2:43:34 PM IST
Britain is one the country's that has given asylum to few wanted persons of other countries.
Posted by: DoBoy At: 14, Jul 2005 2:18:12 PM IST
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