Tamisha Thomas asks herself some searching questions about attitudes to Islam.
Prologue: 23 February 2015
As I sat inside EAT in Westfield on what felt like the most uncomfortable chair ever invented (like a park bench but inside the coffee shop), I couldn’t help but notice the diversity of the people pouring in and out of Stratford station.
Ironically I didn’t eat (the food failed to tantalize); instead I kept taking small sips of cappuccino, drizzled with molecules of chocolate dust.
For no reason in particular, I took the lid off my coffee cup and glanced inside, then looked outside at the people coming in and out of the station, before looking back inside the cup.
Inside and outside seemed to match up exactly: of the people flooding out of the station, some were noire like chocolate sprinkles, some as white as frothed-up milk, others took their place on the spectrum of brown to cream – as diverse as the various shades contained in my coffee.
In other words, the contents of my coffee cup mirrored the multiple complexions of East London. Tony Blair’s dream of a truly multicultural Britain seemed to have come true – at least in this part of London town.
Reverie interrupted by iPhone: it vibrates to tell me there is a Google Alert for East London:
No imminent threat of attack in Westfield Stratford City, Newham Recorder
The Somali-based group Al-Shabaab had released a video targeting various Western shopping malls, including the one I was sitting in – oh, and the one I work in. Great!
What is Al-Shabaab?
- Al-Shabaab means ‘The Youth’ in Arabic.
- Banned as a terrorist group by both the US and the UK, 7000 to 9000 fighters (estimated).
- Numerous reports suggest foreign jihadists are going to Somalia to help Al-Shabaab.
- Claims alliance with Al-Qaeda.
- Notorious for attack on Nairobi’s Westgate shopping centre two years ago: 67 dead.
Even though the Newham Recorder article emphasised ‘no imminent threat’, I no longer felt safe. Transformed into Usain Bolt, within seconds I was in Stratford station, standing at my platform, praying that I would make it from East to West London in one piece. A normal 30 minute journey suddenly felt like eternity. All I could think was that the people entering Westfield were like mice, unaware that they were crawling into a potential death trap. Thirteen exhausting stops later I finally reached Edgware Road station and my home nearby. Home sweet home.
Flashback: 7 July 2005
Different school day, same shit. At least that’s what I thought.
I was 13 the day my teacher ran into my classroom in hysterics. A series of bomb attacks had been carried out across London, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700.
In those days, not long after 11 September 2001, ‘Al Qaeda’ was the name on everyone’s lips.
The class heard that a bomb had exploded at Edgware Road. Immediately I assumed my house had been flattened. Tears ran down my face when I heard that six people were dead at Edgware Road – they could be my family!
After 7/7 I admit I found it hard not to stereotype all Muslims as terrorists. The media are guilty of describing terrorists by their religion, and, as a result, non-Muslims like myself tend to do likewise – identifying ‘Muslim’ and ‘terrorist’ when the two terms should be kept apart.
In the years that followed, instead of addressing lazy assumptions, religion in general and particularly Islam, became increasingly off-limits – not to be discussed openly. But this is the laziest of all responses! If society refrains from discussing religion, how can we obtain a better understanding?
More outspoken than many of my peers, I refused to keep my opinions to myself. While sharing my thoughts with fellow students who are Muslim, I would often argue that most Muslims – not all – surely share some of the beliefs by which self-proclaimed ‘jihadists’ identify themselves. All hell broke loose whenever I said this, and I was repeatedly accused of painting all Muslims with the same brush. But this is not – I repeat, not – what I intended to do.
My point is: there must be something Islamic about, for example, Islamic State, even if this something has been violently twisted and perverted in the way this group enacts its version of Islam. In the same way that the Ulster Volunteer Force was a perverse and sometimes barbaric manifestation of Protestantism, but Protestant nonetheless.
To me, however, the singular point I was trying to make is if anything slightly less important than the space in which to make it. And although for a time I went along with the informal ban on discussing religion, I soon realised this is really not the route to go down.
To understand the cultural wheel I am part of, I have to lay myself open to criticism, even if such criticism offends me. Meanwhile other people should be equally open to the criticisms I make of them, even if they find my criticisms offensive. As I see it, this openness, however discomfiting, is the cornerstone of any civilised society.
In keeping with this approach, I recently took it upon myself to find out how Muslims feel they are portrayed within today’s society. Earlier this month I organised a meeting with five Muslims from Hackney, East London.
I asked them all the same three questions but only one was willing to have his responses included in this article (see below), and even he wished to remain anonymous. (The other four respondents must have assumed that I would only take their words out of context.)
Me: What is it like living as a Muslim in East London?
He: ‘As a black Muslim living in East London I feel caught in the middle.I try to fit into the Western culture but feel guilty for accepting what I deem a sinful lifestyle. Because I have no connections to the Muslim Community who regularly attend mosque, I often feel judged for not being as devout as others – finding a balance is extremely difficult. It’s probably easier to live as a Muslim in East London due to the amount of prejudices I have come across in other areas of the UK.’
How do you feel Muslims are portrayed in the media?
He: ‘Ever since 9/11, Muslims have been portrayed as terrorists and are now scapegoats for many of the problems occurring today. If a Muslim carries out a crime, Islam will be placed in bold and the main focus would be his religion in the article. Scare mongering tactics have left people treating Muslims as lepers.’
What is your view of ISIS?
He: ‘Though our prophet Muhammad was involved in the jihad over many years, this was at a time when tribes regularly clashed as their existence and their way of life were under threat. However ISIS is a group of individuals solely concerned with their own interests, brainwashing many Muslims for their own political, financial and self-righteous gain. The leaders are hard-core Muslims who have taken various parts of the Quran out of context in order to wage war on the West.
‘Although I do not condone what they do, I feel many Muslims are angry because their voice is not heard enough in the media, and have therefore resorted to violence. ISIS have not realised they are currently doing more damage to Islam than the West and it’s us innocent Muslim’s who are paying the price.’
Fast-Forward: 28 February 2015
Three days after the Al- Shabaab video was released I was forced to leave my comfort zone and travel to East London, picking up my Evening Standard on the way. I couldn’t believe what was featured on the front page: he who shall not be named, had been named. The mask of ‘Jihadi John’ was finally off.
Mohammed Emwazi, 27, from Queen’s Park, is said to be the IS executioner who has appeared in a series of shocking videos of the beheading of British and American hostages, London Evening Standard
For whole year prior to this, the black-clad figure had made me uncomfortable. The elusive nature of his hidden face made me feel vulnerable. He was a real-life Voldermort, as dark and mysterious as the arch-villain from the Harry Potter books. Every day my face was exposed for the world to see yet the face of the Islamic state had remained unknown – this did not sit well with me.
Yet now he was revealed as Mohammed Emwazi, from Queen’s Park, only four stops from my home station. Not only is Emwazi’s childhood home approximately eight minutes away from my own, but he also studied computer programming at my local university, Westminster, and purportedly prayed at the Greenwich Islamic Centre in south east London.
Instead of a fiend, photographs showed he looked perfectly normal. I wondered how many times our paths crossed en route to East London.
Once Emwazi had been revealed, I thought the media would stop using ‘Jihadi John’; but they didn’t. It was almost as if the media was ‘celebritising’ him, as if to suggest he was only an extremist when he slipped on the black robe and balaclava. Only then did he become this corrupt character also known as ‘Jihadi John’.
I wondered if he saw himself as a celebrity, like Robyn Rihanna Fenty ‘also known as’ Rihanna, or Norma Jeane Mortenson, ‘also known as’ Marilyn Monroe. And this made me suspicious all over again: that normal-looking guy over there, will there come a time in his life when he turns into ‘also known as’. Is this what’s about to happen any minute? And what has he got in his rucksack, anyway?
According to a survey commissioned by Sky News, a third of Muslims believe they are under suspicion from the wider UK population. Meanwhile 40 per cent of non-Muslims admit they have become more wary of Muslims.
And so it dawned on me that I was part of the 40 per cent. Unconsciously, I have been categorising Muslims as people to be wary of.
Oddly enough, I don’t do this in the Edgware Road area (near my home) – London’s ‘Little Beirut’ with its sizeable population of Middle Eastern origin. But as soon as I enter East London, the association with terrorism tends to kick in to my psyche, uninvited.
Before you say it: no I am not racist!
Rather, I think all religions (and none) should be wary of any kind of fundamentalism that is militant and mercilessly intolerant.
Does that make me a person suffering from Islamophobia?
You decide.