The London Blasts: Media Review

DAY 70: 15 September 2005

Timothy Garton Ash

Terrorist Socks Update

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

ISLAM - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

Modern historian Timothy Garton Ash, establishment thinker, offers his thoughts on the 'problem' of Islam in today's Guardian: 'What we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves'. Typically of the mainstream media, his article betrays a confusion of 'problems' and a denial of certain fundamental and pertinent realities.

According to Garton Ash, there are just six different views of 'the nub of the problem. He ends with these words:

'Now, which of the six views got your largest tick? In answering that question, you will not just be saying something about the Islamic world; you will be saying something about yourself. For what we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves. Tell me your Islam and I will tell you who you are.'

In his description of 'the problem', Garton Ash is not just saying something about the Islamic world, he is saying something about himself. By his conformity to media and academic standards, he is also saying something about the culture we live in.

And the result is truly depressing.

DEMOCRACY AND TERROR - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

Firstly, the confusion: Garton Ash begins by defining the 'problem' in these terms:

'most people living in what we still loosely call the west would agree that we do have troubles with Islam. The vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists, but most of the terrorists who threaten us claim to be Muslims. Most countries with a Muslim majority show a resistance to what Europeans and Americans generally view as desirable modernity, including the essentials of liberal democracy.'

He assumes, without argument, that the indiscriminate use of illegitimate force is linked to 'what Europeans and Americans generally view as desirable modernity, including the essentials of liberal democracy'.

But looked at from the other end of this discussion, the reality confronting people in the Middle East is that the people of Iraq and Afghanistan are being occupied and brutalised by states with the highest internal levels of 'desirable modernity' and 'liberal democracy'. The Palestinian people are being occupied and brutalised by the country which has the region's highest internal level of 'desirable modernity' and 'liberal modernity' as defined in the West.

The fountainhead of Western civilization, Ancient Greece, combined unprecedented levels of democracy (for unenslaved men) with high levels of international terrorism, piracy and aggression.

The two 'problems' have to be distinguished and disentangled. Garton Ash is, unfortunately, not up to the job.

TERROR - THE IDENTITY EXPLANATION

Restricting our attention to the fifth and sixth of Garton Ash's alternatives, he explains the terrorism of Mohammed Atta and Mohammad Sidique Khan as the outcome of the 'acute tension' where 'the west and Islam' meet:

'from the direct, personal encounter of young, first- or second-generation Muslim immigrants with western, and especially European, secular modernity. The most seductive system known to humankind, with its polychromatic consumer images of health, wealth, excitement, sex and power, is hugely attractive to young people from often poor, conservative, Muslim backgrounds. But, repelled by its hedonistic excesses or perhaps disappointed in their secret hopes, alienated by the reality of their marginalised lives in the west or feeling themselves rejected by it, a few - a tiny minority - embrace a fierce, extreme, warlike new version of the faith of their fathers.'

It may be too late to point out that 'the West' and 'Islam' are not mutually exclusive entities, that they are not monolithic and homogenous (something Garton Ash concedes elsewhere in the article - in relation to Islam, but not to 'the West'), and that there is no universally-agreed definition of either concept. The counterposing of the West vs. Islam is universal now, even among those who oppose Islamophobia.

In any event, turning to the substance of Option 6, this is the explanation that Garton Ash himself finds most persuasive:

'I wish I could find some compelling evidence against this claim. But I can't. (Can some reader help?) Even if we were to assist at the birth of a free Palestine and pull out of Iraq tomorrow, this problem would remain. It threatens to make Europe a less civilised, comfortable place to live over the next 10 years.'

Readers of this column should be able to help..

DENIAL - TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

Let's turn to Option 5:

'We, not they, are the root of the problem. From the Crusades to Iraq, western imperialism, colonialism, Christian and post-Christian ideological hegemonism have themselves created this antipathy to western liberal democracy; and, at the extreme, its mortal enemies. Moreover, after causing (by the Holocaust of European barbarism), supporting or at least accepting the establishment of the state of Israel, we have for more than half a century ignored the terrible plight of the Palestinians.'

'A widespread view among Muslims, and by no means only among Arabs in the Middle East. Also shared, from a different starting point, by some on the western left. Of course, even if this simplistic version of history were entirely true, we couldn't change the past.'

Interesting Feature No. 1. All of these Western-induced 'roots of the problem' date back at least fifty years. When we are told by the CIA's bin Laden expert Michael Scheuer that the roots of al-Qaeda lie in US and Western foreign policies of the last ten or twenty years.

Interesting Feature No. 2. The acts of oppression are said to have lead to 'antipathy to western liberal democracy'. When Michael Scheuer says that al Qaeda opposes Western foreign policies, not Western democracy, Western values or Western decadence. (For some of Michael Scheuer's analysis, see our first Media Review.)

Interesting Feature No. 3. The ideological consequence of Garton Ash's intellectual moves is that no alterations in foreign policy (apart from 'do[ing] more to create a free Palestine') must be considered in response to the terrorist challenge from al-Qaeda: 'we can't change the past'. Therefore we need not change anything in the future.

Interesting Feature No. 4. The occupation of Iraq is not included here, where it belongs, but is instead mentioned in the next section about the cultural roots of terrorism. It is mentioned there only to be dismissed: pulling out of Iraq will still leave the problem of identity-clash terrorists.

Tell us your Islam and we will tell you who you are, Mr Garton Ash.

You are a servant of power.

TERRORIST SOCKS UPDATE

THE DEFENCE EXPLAINS

The Times, the Guardian and the Telegraph all cover the ongoing 'terrorist sock' trial today (all use the name 'Andrew Rowe' to refer to the defendant, despite the fact that he took the name 'Yusuf Abdullah' on converting to Islam ten years ago).

All the accounts today are incomplete. Let's add the pieces available together:

The terrorist socks

'He denies a charge, under the Terrorism Act, of possessing the socks for terrorist purposes connected to his support for the violent Islamic jihad philosophy of Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'eda.' (Telegraph, page 10)

'Asked why the socks had been rolled into a ball with a 1.5 metre pyjama cord attached to them, Mr Rowe, 34, said: "It's a target for martial arts. It's a target for kicking, to get your kicking accurate so you hang it up on the ceiling." '

'An army explosives expert had told the jury that the rolled-up socks and cord were probably used for cleaning a mortar. But Mr Rowe, a father of four from west London, said he used them to practise jiujitsu after his return to London from Bosnia in 1997...'

'Explaining the traces of three high explosives, Mr Rowe said he had carried boxes of battlefield ammunition to an underground store after going to Bosnia in 1995 to help Muslims. "There would be some boxes broken, they looked second-hand ... and I didn't want to get splinters. I tried to find some gloves but I couldn't, so I used my socks," he said.' (Guardian, page 11)

'He said that he had not washed the socks between using them to carry munitions in 1995 and his arrest eight years later.' (Times, page 22)

The codebook

'Mr Rowe said that he had also been prepared to travel to countries bordering Chechnya to do aid work and to act as a courier carrying military equipment and ordnance.' (Times, page 22)

'The codebook, which substituted mobile phone model serial numbers for words such as target, explosives and weapons, had been devised, he said, by contacts who wanted him to act as a courier on the Chechen borders. He added: "I know their names but I am not prepared to say the names." ' (Times, page 22)

'Some of the words, such as "cars", were the items he was to take to Chechnya and the countries were places he might travel from. "'Targets' were the countries where I would be entering or dropping things off," he said, adding: "I was sure that the courier work wouldn't be of a terrorist nature." ' (Guardian, page 11)

The notebook

'On the notebook found in his home containing detailed instructions on how to fire a mortar, Mr Rowe said he copied down the information from notes he made while in Bosnia. "It was memorabilia, basically," he said.' (Guardian, page 11)

'He said that the instructions on using a mortar were a copy of notes that he had been given to read by a military commander in Bosnia. Mr Rowe said that he had never fired a mortar, but kept the notes as "memorabilia" of his time in the "war zone".' (Times, page 22)

'He said he made the notes after his Bosnian trip "to be a bit of a lad. When I spoke to people, I could look as if I had authority".' (Telegraph, page 10)

The bin Laden video

'Rowe denied being "intensely" involved in Islam. He said al-Qa'eda material, including a video of the living will of one of the September 11 hi-jackers, found in a flat where he had allegedly stayed, had belonged to his former wife and he did not watch it.' (Telegraph, page 10)

Fighting in Bosnia

'Andrew Rowe, a former drug dealer who converted to Islam when he was 19, said that he travelled to Bosnia in 1995 as a volunteer aid worker but became convinced of the need to do more. "I wanted to participate and help people defend themselves against an aggressive force," Mr Rowe told a jury.'

'Mark Ellison, for the prosecution, asked: "Were you prepared to fight?" '

'Mr Rowe replied: "Yes. The situation in Bosnia required more than aid, it needed able-bodied people to help defend the Bosnians. It was accepted that I was there to help these people defend themselves and their lands." ' (Times, page 22)

Yusuf Abdullah is, as we've pointed out before, actually being tried for 'behaving suspiciously'. This is a Kafkaesque new offence which is just designed to produce miscarriages of justice. You have to prove that your behaviour was for innocent rather than terrorist purposes. If you are a Muslim convert, you are already in the dock. If you fought in Bosnia (as did many non-Muslim British soldiers, including the SAS), you are half-convicted. If you can be associated with a bin Laden video...

Are trails like these going to make us safer? Or more at risk of anger and alienation? And if there is a conviction?

JNV welcomes feedback.