I just watched a documentary called "The Enemy Within," which basically used documents, speeches, news articles from the mid-late 1890s about the british Anarchists and the terrorism acted in the name of anarchy, and recited them in a modern british setting. The only changes were that the anarchists were now represented by muslims. It was clear, absolutely clear that nothing has changed in over a century. The anarchists had a manifesto that condemned terrorism, but also condemned the oppression enacted by the forces of law and order. There were other speeches that talked about the extreme level of surveillance put into operation. News organisations villified and attacked all Anarchists. Calling them a foreign menace, from spain. They said that they should be ejected from this country, using terms like "desperado." The anarchists talked about how oppressing people only makes them angrier, more violent, more desperate, that they feel they have run out of options. The worst part is that Scotland Yard (Police HQ) intercepted an enormous terrorist plot, and it turned out that it was Scotland Yard that had instigated it. Ofcourse this never came out at the time, and applying that particular part of the tale to today is verging into conspiracy theory; the fact that it is possible, perhaps even probable in Britain is terrifying.
By the end of that documentary, I was almost in tears. I'm a muslim living in the UK, and I was 11 when the World Trade Centre was attacked, and even at 11 years old, I could see what was gonna happen. When an official spokesperson comes on TV and says that they dont know who did it, but that they advise people to stay away from ALL muslim countries, it's not a massive leap to predict the future. I must've been only 12 or 13 when it got into my head, based on what I saw on TV, and what I heard around me, that there was no reason why me and my family could be arrested and sent to guantanamo bay to be tortured for years, for no good reason. I also believed that there was nothing I could do about it. Can you possibly imagine what it's like to feel that? Before then, I was fine, I had no reason to fear a fate worse than death. I had no reason to be afraid of the people that are supposed to protect me. But afterwards, I couldn’t think of any body that could stop them.
Shortly after that, just before the Iraq War, a million people marched the streets of London. Nothing came of it. A million people, marching, protesting, could not even make the government stop for a second, to think about what they were doing. I was certain that there was nothing anyone could do. Democracy was dead. I started hearing people say some very scary things. Fellow muslims who had come to the same realisation that I did. They were never gonna go out and kill people, but they could completely understand and even relate to those that did. As the anarchists were a hundred years ago, that is what the muslims have become. “The foreign menace,” “Islamic Fundamentalists.” The constant, constant lies and half truths skewed horrifically, into monstrous dictations of what Britain should think.
Every bomber in Britain was born in Britain, raised in Britain; how is that a foreign menace? They have grown up seeing the same things I have. I learned better, and I always knew that there’s no excuse for murder but there’s no reason why others would learn that. From what people see and hear, there is no reason to believe that they are not being persecuted, no reason to believe that they are free from suspicion, and no reason to believe that they have the power to change things without violence. Everyone across the country watched a million people march against a government initiative and it solved nothing. Why should they think that it would work now? Nothing’s changed. Attitudes haven’t changed, if anything they’ve gotten worse, as the lies become embedded in the backs of peoples minds. And the lies are still coming. I stopped watching the BBC news because I feel literally ill at what is said. Other channels are hardly better.
There are millions of muslims who just want to talk to people, and who do talk to people. Our ideas and our lives are not those of terrorists and sometimes it feels like people are not going to be convinced otherwise.
That documentary showed that somebody is breaking through, a voice is being heard and it’s like a breath of fresh air. 6 years ago, I would have been afraid to breathe at all.
But I know it’s not enough, because with each voice of reason, comes 10 voices of ignorance. I can only have hope.
The Anarchist plots stopped around World War I... that's 20 years of the government oppressing others for their ideas, based on the actions of a few angry people.
How long will this one last?
Post Merge: October 13, 2009, 12:14:52 AM
I fear the length of my post hath broken the internets
