The backlash will occur in a different landscape, which should temper our fears.After the tragedy of 9/11, Muslims found themselves alone. Apart from loudly denouncing terrorism, they had to distance themselves from extremists while simultaneously apologising constantly for their existence. Now, they stand shoulder to shoulder with leaders of other communities. The Bishop of Stepney, the Rev Stephen Oliver, faced the press with Dr Bari; both prayed for and spoke of the need for peace and harmony at the epicentre of the attacks.The Archbishop of Canterbury, attending an interfaith meeting, broke off to respond by asserting faith communities have to "continue to stand and work together" for "our shared understanding of the life that God calls us to". Our experience of earlier atrocities, they say, leads us to this inevitable conclusion. Already there are reports from some that the hate emails have begun to arrive.
As a recent report, "Intolerance and discrimination against Muslims in the EU" by the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, points out, earlier atrocities - from 9/11 to Bali and Madrid - have produced a direct backlash against Muslim communities in Europe. On the contrary, it seems to be highly political and targeted.Two things, however, are new, and, in combination, make it particularly hard to defend against. One is the context of global travel and communications, and the other is the potential for the use of suicide as a weapon, although the evidence so far as to whether the London explosions were caused by suicide bombers is mixed.The resolute response of both the British public and the Prime Minister to Thursday's horror sets the right tone for policy to minimise the risks in the future. Despite the horror, we should be relieved that the death toll was so low. But equally we should be alert to the potential for it to be so much higher next time.It should now be clear that those people who accused the Government of exaggerating the threat of terrorism in order to get illiberal legislation on to the statute book were tilting at the wrong target.Equally, however, it should be clear that further attempts to remove historic protections of liberty and justice are irrelevant to the real need, which is for patient investigation, and, in both senses of the word, intelligence.. Muslims are awaiting a backlash.
Our leaders are predicting increases in racial attacks, incidents of abuse of Muslim women and general harassment of bearded men everywhere. They remain intelligence and police work, rather than new powers of surveillance and control or counterproductive military action to "suppress" terrorists at source. As Professor Aldrich observes overleaf, the "new" terrorism has turned out to be not so new after all. It does not appear to be indiscriminate, or to be aimed simply at maximising death and destruction.
