July 25, 2005
 

Paranoia in London? Pervez is da maan!

Mark Lawson writes in The Guardian about the way Londoners seem very wary of others on buses, trains etc. in the wake of more attempted bomb blasts last Thursday exactly two weeks after the first set of blasts on 7^th July.

According to check lists on the internet, based on Israeli experience, one way of spotting a suicide bomber on public transport is to look out for passengers who seem sweaty or anxious or who are mouthing silent prayers. But the flaw in this technique is that almost everyone I saw on tubes or buses in yesterday morning's rush hour was glistening with apprehensive perspiration, while several seemed to be muttering secret deals with some deity. And yet none of these people wanted to kill me; they were trying to stay alive. So the eventual effect of Islamicist terrorism is to make the threatening and the threatened indistinguishable.

Then a man was shot dead last Friday at Stockwell station. But he in fact turned out to be a Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes and according to Scotland Yard, the shooting was a mistake.

This will only increase Londoners fears about terrorism and they will continue to, as Lawson points out, consider the chap sitting in the adjacent seat fidgeting around to be a bomber as well, precisely what the terrorists would have hoped to achieve.

That is the way global terrorism typically works. Create an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear. Then get the radicals to talk about how their way is the only way out. This increases the paranoia and fear with some of the influenced ones allowing themselves to get indoctrinated in the language of hatred and terrorism. Soon the chap next door also seems like a suicide bomber, even if all he has been doing is pray to God a little more fervently and is as far away from being a terrorist as you and I are. After this, the first terrorist strike will invariably result in confirmation that the chap next door has in fact been hand-in-glove with the perpetrators of the crime. Then it becomes difficult for people to live in peace.

Whats the way out? Eradicate the root cause of global terrorism: Cleanse Pakistan. Read the riot act to Musharraf. Dont be swayed by his rhetoric, glib-talking and his preaching.

Tailpiece: A hunt is on for Pakistani nationals apparently involved in the blasts on Saturday at Sharm al-Sheikh. A Daily Times editorial talks about the linkage between Pakistan and Egypt in terrorism and wonders about the future.

Labels: musharraf, pakistan, uk

Rambled @ 2:08 PM

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