It looks like the right-wing press is resuming its hysterical campaign against the proposed Tablighi Jamaat markaz at the Riverine Centre in Newham. "Bomb fear at mega mosque" is the shock horror headline to an article in the Daily Star Sunday, which follows the recent scaremongering report in the Evening Standard.

According to the Star: "Security forces feared extremists could use boats to smuggle explosives on to the site of a proposed mega mosque in East London during the Games. Spooks conducted a series of boating missions to test the possibility of terrorists bringing bombs into the Stratford area. Anti-terror chiefs thought they might use the River Thames, River Lea and a tributary known as the Channelsea River, which runs adjacent to the planned 12,000-seater mosque site in West Ham, East London."

For confirmation of this dubious story, for which the Star offers no sources at all, the paper turns to local right-wing Christian bigot Alan Craig, who is quoted as saying: "No doubt the security forces have been watching it. I spoke some time ago to a number of anti-terror officers about it and they were certainly watching the situation with the Olympics coming up. This site is less than half a mile from Olympic stadia. They were quite concerned." Craig adds: "Officers had been out in rubber boats on the river assessing the possibility of getting ordnance in via the river."

It was Craig who issued a disgraceful press release in July 2007 claiming that Tablighi Jamaat had inspired the attempted terrorist attacks in Glasgow and London. I suppose it's possible that anti-terror officers discussed their operational plans with this fundamentalist crank, but it strikes me as highly unlikely.

Having stirred up its readers with unsubstantiated accusations of association with terrorism, the Star concludes its report by quoting the trustees of the Riverine Centre as stating: "There are no such security concerns regarding Tablighi Jamaat. These people are just interested in constructing a building that is suitable for their faith. There is nothing sinister going on."

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Where does the similarity lay? In fact, 9/11 was not the corollary of just jihad in Afghanistan, ‎though it provided a fertile guide to young minds. Palestinian issue contributed a lot and it ‎added rather fuel to the fire that the United States not only supported the Israeli expansion to ‎Gaza, but also vetoed any resolution that came up or was presented in the UN General ‎Assembly or Security Council, leaving Muslims to lick their wounds. Some other important ‎issues where gross injustice was committed against Muslims also added insult to the injury. ‎The issues of Chechnya, Bosnia, Kashmir and others further augmented this thinking. The ‎major feeling was injustice against the Muslims that still continue.‎

Now that the US backed Arab Spring has taken hold of the entire Middle East, it is not a new ‎thing. It is same New World Order that Bush Senior envisaged though it has backfired in some ‎countries such as Egypt, leading to worries in Israel and the United States and other is to break ‎up the “axis of resistance”. Recently Syrian Foreign Minister has said it during his interview ‎with a journalist of The Independent that the US officials asked them to renounce their backing ‎up to Iran and they would have peace in Syria that they spurned. The world that is backing ‎resistance, insurgency or revolution in Syria is turning a blind eye to the same Arab Spring and ‎Revolution in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain where majority is deprived of basic human rights such ‎as freedom of expression and peaceful protests.‎

As far as US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan is concerned, democracy has not taken any form ‎over there in these countries. Iraq is witnessing unprecedented Al-Qa’ida attacks that were ‎nonexistent during Saddam regime and Afghanistan is witnessing rising attacks in the coalition ‎forces. Mayhem in Pakistan is also the handiwork of the same forces, leading to estranged ‎feelings among some fanatic factions and large-scale suicide attacks, originally intended to be ‎launched against the western targets. ‎

If all these developments in the Middle East and Muslim countries are jotted down together, ‎they lead to a world scenario that is ripening toward another 9/11. In fact, if seen with an ‎analytic mind, the situations that caused 9/11 are very much here. The difference is only that ‎the anti-US and anti-western forces are not much coordinated and embedded in the western ‎world. ‎
Now the question is will these be coordinated enough to cause another such tragedy? The ‎answer to this question is very big yes. The Muslims over there are now going through a wave ‎of anti-Muslim propaganda and even some moves that are totally against the western norms as ‎well. For example, ban of veil in France, Muslim targeting in the United States, permission of ‎caricatures of the Holy Prophet [PBUH] in Germany, anti-Muslim resentment in other western ‎countries are making the Muslim community living over there to feel separated from the ‎mainstream politics and this is highly precarious development.‎

About the author

Mazhar Abbas Bhatti

Professor of English Language and Literature, professional Urdu-English Translator, writer and editor, Mazhar Abbas Bhatti has a deep understanding of international affairs and US role on the global chessboard. He teaches in ICB, the oldest and premier institution in Islamabad, Pakistan.

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