Circumstantial Fundamentalists: Guilt by association
Monday, 01 February 2010
The recent alleged Detroit bomb plot has shocked Muslim students across London and the UK. As it arose that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a former UCL Isoc President, fingers were soon pointing to Isocs for ‘radicalising’ their members- ‘guilty’by association.
Have you ever played the game 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon? Created by a group of college students as a parody of the philosophical puzzle "6 degrees of separation" it posited that the actor Kevin Bacon was the centre of Hollywood and that anyone else involved in the movies could be linked to him by six steps or less.
Today, in the heart of London a much more sinister version of this is being played out by many - but not all - journalists and commentators. Ever since the events of boxing day when the former President of a London University Islamic Society allegedly attempted to bring down a flight over Detroit, parts of the journalistic world have been desperately trying to link this person to numerous prominent Muslim personalities and organisations. They've even resorted to phoning numbers off event posters, leaving messages on facebook walls and doorstepping people all in the hope of getting the "story" but instead making many Muslim students feel harassed and hunted.
An article in The Independent said that associates had claimed that Mr AbdulMuttalab was known to have attended East London Mosque. Another report suggested he had been there at least three times. Anyone who has any knowledge of East London Mosque knows that it is one of the largest and most professional Mosques in Western Europe with tens of thousands of worshippers filtering in and out each day. To associate one of the main houses of worship for the Muslim community in London with violence based on chance visits by someone who they could not have reasonably known is not only lazy journalism, it is pernicious. One could equally say that he had eaten from the same Halaal Fried Chicken place more than six times thereby the number 4 meal should also be seen as highly radicalising.
Another report by an American news channel stated that Mr Muttalab attended a course in Texas run by the Al Maghrib institute. The spotlight was now shone on Al Maghrib making insinuations that they played some part in his radicalization. Of course, no one bothered to mention the fact that Al Maghrib mainly taught weekend courses on Quranic commentary , self improvement or the even more pertinent fact that they had only recently put on a talk entitled "Reclaiming Islam from the Jihadists."
By far the most suspect organisation was the Islamic Society of UCL itself variously portrayed as a hotbed of extremism, a fundamentalist society for narrow minded people etc... But as he was the President of the said Islamic Society, surely the association was more than just tangential? True, but Richard Nixon was caught lying on tape and he was elected President of the United States not once but twice. Are we to rightly assume that the fact that their President was a liar implies that all Americans are liars? Or serial adulterers with their interns? Or fundamentalist bigots ready to take their country to war on flimsy evidence? No - that would be crass, ignorant and wrong.
They touted the fact that he had organised a "War on Terror" week of talks and debates on campus as an example of his early radical political views. Since when has discussing the rights and wrongs of the current geo-political actions in the world been a sign of radicalism? And if it really is a sign of being radical then surely that applies to all the debates being had in town halls and parliaments across the world on these topics. Again, the media neglected to mention that other societies co-sponsored the event including UCL's branch of Amnesty International and the Stop the War Coalition. The talks and debates were open to all with many of the speakers being Non-Muslim, hardly the "radical" event that it was portrayed to be. But none of this mattered as the target had been firmly set on Islamic societies and it was not about to be moved now.
University is a tough time for everyone. You're usually away from your family for the first time and taking your first tentative steps as an adult. You are building the foundations of your future career and meeting like-minded people who begin to shape your personality and outlook of the world. So spare a thought for the Muslim student who has the added worry of wondering whether his/ her attendance at a certain talk/ mosque / society will be enough of a tangential link to get his face splashed on the pages of newspapers as a radical or even a one way ticket to Guantanamo.
By Ghair Marouf
LSE ISoc Graduate
Note: The views expressed in this article are not those of ISocnews.com and are only of the author.
Please also read an article by the FOSIS president regarding the alleged Detroit bomb plot
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The recent alleged Detroit bomb plot has shocked Muslim students across London and the UK. As it arose that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a former UCL Isoc President, fingers were soon pointing to Isocs for ‘radicalising’ their members- ‘guilty’by association.
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