Out of Bali: cybercaliphate rising

National Interest, The, Spring, 2003 by David Martin Jones

While Prime Minister Tony Blair remains steadfast in his commitment to the war on terror abroad, the British Home Office permits self-styled sheikhs Abu Hamza and Omar Bhakri Mohamed to recruit for Al-Qaeda from their state-subsidized mosque in Finsbury Park, North London, within half a dozen tube stops of Westminster. (13) These leading figures in the Saudi-funded Islamic Council of Britain promulgate the achievement--by jihad, if necessary--of a unified Islamic world that would include among its future member states the Islamic Republic of the United Kingdom. Omar Bhakri dismisses the more moderate voices of British Islam who dissent from this salafist utopia as "chocolate Muslims."

On August 25, 2002, Abu Hamza's Al-Muhajiroun ("the migrants") and its affiliates, like the London branch of Hizb ut-Tahrir, rallied in Trafalgar Square. Clad in a variety of colorful kaftans and turbans, they resembled something left over from an aging American west coast band of the late Sixties counterculture. Instead of love and peace, however, they chanted "Osama, Osama, Osama." As in Jakarta, uncompromising certitude accompanied the flowing kaftans. Peddling their ideological wares from four green tents marked "Islam", "Capitalism", "Democracy" and "Globalization"--located just behind the backs of the statues of two heroes of empire, Sir Henry Havelock and Sir Charles Napier, whilst Admiral Nelson turned a blind eye firm atop his pedestal--the militant disciples of the sheikh, stylishly accoutred in black turbans and matching Ray-Bans, projected an image of radical Islamist chic. Indeed, the scene could have been set in Jakarta, except for one thing: the protestors did not openly avow the use of force. Instead, handouts like "A Call to Boycott America and Israel" excoriated the "hyenas and vultures which operate under the guise of the coalition against terrorism." The point was not obscure.

This heady mixture of posturing and utopianism appeals strongly to a younger generation of Asian-British youth, recruited to the ranks of A1-Qaeda and its affiliates in growing numbers. Why, and why London? First, because many Muslims in London are lured away from community and Islamic tradition by the attractions and opportunities of Western life. And second, because states like Egypt, Jordan, Singapore and Malaysia may exercise a far greater degree of control over radical Islamist activity than occurs in the West generally, and Europe in particular. They can control the press, limit Internet access and overcome their concerns, if they have any, about civil liberties violations with consummate ease. Not so in the United Kingdom, where liberal guilt about Britain's colonial sins increasingly trumps common sense these days. (14) Indeed, after Al-Qaeda moved from Sudan to Afghanistan in 1998, a number of disgruntled operatives, alarmed at the medieval conditions in Kabul, proposed relocating to London. This le d Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri to rule that "a brother may travel to London to collect funds, but may not stay there or seek asylum." (15) It seems that Al-Qaeda's leading strategist assumed that the Home Office would unhesitatingly grant asylum if requested, and he was probably right.