July 7 London bombings – one year on

One year ago today I was at my office in KL, Malaysia. It was a rather slow news day and we were winding down when news started coming in through the wires about the bomb blasts in London.

When the four suicide bombers struck in London that morning, it was early evening in Malaysia. We were looking for bits and pieces of information to upload into our website as soon as possible. As a journalist, you would always try to link events with something else and naturally my mind went to the Sept 11 attacks in the US, as well as the Bali and Spain bombings. Eerily the London attacks were similar to the Spanish bombing as their bombers targeted transport systems.

Only a day or two later we had a clearer picture about the London attacks Luckily it was no where as bad as the Sept 11 incident but still 52 people had died, millions others now living in fear of traveling in the mega city.

One year one, there will be low-key ceremonies and memorial services to remember the victims in London today. There is also a two-minute nationwide silence at noon.

I am now in England and for the past few months I have been reading the tales of the survivors from the attacks. I understand their fears. I have also been following closely the inquiry into the attacks and, like many others, am dumfounded by the fact that many questions remain unanswered. For instance, we don’t know if any others were involved in the plot. We still don’t know if other attacks are/were planned? And more importantly no one has been arrested to date.

But what we have had is some classic police bungling in spectacular media events in arresting alleged terrorists. All such arrests thus far have backfired and created bad press for the police.

And significantly, these arrests have driven a wedge between the Muslim community in England and the authorities. A recent survey showed that 13% of British Muslims regard the four July 7 suicide bombers as martyrs, 7% agree that suicide attacks on civilians can be justified and 16% say that while the attacks may be wrong, the cause was right.

Given these circumstances, the British government must start doing something in winning the minds and hearts of the 1.6 million Muslim population here. It should not just be a political move, but also involves the socio-economy aspect. Politicians should not open a community centre, come around during elections and then pretend that everything is fine.

Police statistics indicate that more blacks and Asians are stopped and searched in the UK than the whites. Institutional prejudice in action? I don’t know, but I think the minority communities too should make an effort to integrate properly with the British society.

This integration is sorely lacking here. We see divisions in the British communities everywhere – schools, neighbourhoods, local businesses, playing fields and work places.

As long as there is no assimilation between the communities, a sense of distrust will always prevail. And along with it, the danger of more suicide attacks – due to the political climate of the world today - will always be present.