London under siege

The contrast could not have been sharper. The jubilation that had greeted London8217;s successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games was replaced 8212; in just a few short hours 8212; by mass panic and terror as a series of calibrated blasts tore through London8217;s lifeline, its transport system. The two conflicting images of a City Energised and a City Under Siege demand a moment of pause. Together they appear to convey a contemporary truism 8212; that the promise and delights of ordinary life will prove elusive unless they are immured against the threat of incandescent terror.

London, as one of the world8217;s most powerful capitals and a hub for international finance, was long under threat. As city after city came under terror attacks 8212; Moscow, Madrid, Istanbul, Jakarta, New Delhi 8212; London held its breath. On Thursday morning, the inevitable happened. The timing of the attack was too pat to be a coincidence. This was nothing more than a direct message to the G8 nations assembled at Gleneagles that the phantom still walks amidst them. Tony Blair acknowledged this and was direct in his recognition of the challenge before him when he told his audience there that 8220;our determination to defend our values is greater than theirs to impose extremism8230; whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed.8221; But how this can be done is the issue that has been agitating minds ever since that earlier fateful morning of September 11, 2001.

The problem of defeating terror lies in its very fluidity. Terrorists can cross national borders, work in tandem, lie in wait for the right moment to strike, meticulously perpetrate their damage, and then melt into the scenery. These forces mean business, they cannot be allowed to get away each time. Their asymmetric skill to perpetrate discrete acts of terror demands a new alertness and a new intelligence from the international community. But, first, they need to be isolated from civilised society. Groups like the Al-Qaeda portray themselves as defenders of Islam. But in actual fact they represent everything that is contrary to Islamic law and teaching. This recognition that terrorism 8212; and its conscious targeting of ordinary people 8212; represents an absolute evil, that is contrary to everything that civilised society values, should be the basis for the world8217;s response.