Most serious research into radical political Islam in Europe – the work done by French sociologists such as
Posted in General on 21. Sep, 2010
Most serious research into radical political Islam in Europe – the work done by French sociologists such as Gilles Kepel and Olivier Roy, for example – draws attention to the home-grown and highly individualised creed of militant Islam, one which has its roots not in the injustices of the Middle East but in the fractured and confused identities of young Muslims at home.Turning the spotlight on al-Qa’ida is a convenient lie. His group, Hussain has apparently informed his Italian interrogators, had no contact at all with the Bin Laden organisation or with any Pakistanis, but drew most of its inspiration from surfing the world wide web.It would be unfortunate if the idea of al-Qa’ida as a global conspiracy with tentacles in every Western capital were to be rehabilitated as a result of the July bombs. Instead, and despite the efforts of the media to internationalise the problem, the evidence points radically in the other direction. The London bombers used homemade and extremely crude nail bombs, probably knocked up in the kitchen sink.Everything about them suggests that they were enthusiastic freelances and rank amateurs – internet nerds, misfits and petty criminals – rather than sleeper cells awaiting the instruction of an al-Qa’ida mastermind.Despite all those plaintive trips by journalists to Pakistani madrasas in an effort to understand how young minds could have been led so astray, it soon became apparent that the plot for the 7 July bombings was firmed up in a very British bonding exercise – while on a whitewater rafting holiday in rural Wales.And despite the continued hunt for the al-Qa’ida Mr Big, initial leaks from interrogation of the alleged Shepherd’s Bush bomber, Osman Hussain, suggest a different story. Instead, he fronted a solid reporting job examining how young Muslims in Western countries are attracted to the solitary pleasures of watching propaganda and execution videos from militant Islamists in Algeria, Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq.Al-Qa’ida, Taylor seemed to be suggesting, has morphed into a “virtual” organisation which consists chiefly in internet chat-rooms and a few gory websites. Which is another way of saying that it is no organisation at all.While it would be foolish to speculate before the police have completed their interrogations, nothing that has happened in the last month has disproved the thesis that the threat posed by al-Qa’ida has been exaggerated out of all proportion. In the first instalment of his series The New al-Qaeda last week, BBC journalist Peter Taylor particularly criticised those who had argued that the terrorist threat was a nightmare cooked up by politicians.
We told you so, the journalists and spooks seem to be saying. If only you had believed us.
But what did they tell us, exactly? No one doubts the terror threat from extremist groups or individuals but, at least in the first instalment, Mr Taylor produced no evidence whatsoever of the global presence of al-Qa’ida. At least within the media and the security services, al-Qa’ida is now firmly back in business, and there is no longer any patience for dissent. Or as Edith Wharton put it: “If only we’d stop trying to be happy, we’d have a pretty good time.”. “Huge hunt for al-Qa’ida mastermind”, yelled the Sunday papers. The immediate bombers may have been caught, but the search is still on for the shady recruiter who must surely have been pulling the strings from abroad. The puzzle has yet to be solved, and we are in need of a missing link.
What the Yeppies are after – total spiritual satisfaction – is something that no job can provide. Fulfillment, like love, becomes more elusive the more you search for it. So you might as well stop procrastinating and get on with the job – any job. Nobody talks about their careers any more – they’re too busy trying to sort out marriage and babies. A cheerful resignation has settled over the bankers and marketers: like the Dickensian clerk, they are coming to see work as a means to an end, rather than their only vehicle for self-expression.The Yuppies had the good sense to crave only tangible, measurable wealth.
You can call it “browsing” if you like, but to me it looked like mental torment.From the other side of 30, all that angst seems even more unnecessary. Most of my friends, however intelligent and well-qualified, didn’t have a clue.Everyone they spoke to gave the same advice: “Find something you like doing, and do that.” But they had no idea what they liked doing, apart from playing Frisbee and watching old episodes of Dallas; so they drifted into marketing, recruitment or banking, got increasingly anxious and depressed about not being fulfilled, dropped out, dropped back in again, and berated themselves continually for not having found The Right Job. This did not protect me from career anxiety (in the two months between leaving university and finding my first job, I developed stress-related excema, asthma and alopecia; it was not a pretty sight), but at least I had some idea what direction I should be pointing in. “What do you do?”I was luckier than most of my peers, in that I had always known I wanted to be a journalist. “The only thing people want to know,” she grumbled, “is what you do, how much you get paid, and whether you enjoy it.
You’d think there was nothing interesting about us apart from our jobs.”We stared at our feet for a while, suddenly stumped for small talk “So .. anyway,” she said eventually. It was all anyone seemed to talk about.I remember sitting on the stairs at a house party, commiserating with a stranger about the demise of conversation. I exited my twenties four years ago, when the Yeppie was just a twinkle in Kate Fox’s eye – but even then the pressure to find the perfect job was intense. Instead, we must seize control of our career trajectories, and stay at the steering wheel for the entirety of our working lives.It is hardly surprising, then, that twenty-somethings sometimes crack under the strain of choosing the right career. Ever since the Sixties, we have had it drummed into us that we are entitled – even obliged – to seek personal fulfillment in every aspect of our lives.And since capitalism has done away with the job for life, most of us no longer have the option of just stumbling into an office and staying there. To pursue any kind of creative vocation, you had to be either privately wealthy or content to be poor.John Ruskin summed up the modest hopes of the 19th century worker thus: “In order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it: They must not do too much of it: And they must have a sense of success in it.” Wise words indeed – but much too humble for modern tastes.These days, we expect to actively enjoy our work, and feel that we have failed if enjoyment is not forthcoming.