London // Standing on Edgware Road on July 7, Ameena Pirbhai watched the throng of people surrounding the station.
“I was heavily pregnant. My son Reza was a week overdue.”
Ameena had come down from her flat to help, bring drinks or offer home-made sandwiches to survivors and helpers of one of the four bombings on London’s public transport network 10 years ago.
But she soon had to have an urgent blood transfusion, as can sometimes be needed in late pregnancy, and was taken to nearby St Mary’s Hospital, where victims of the bombing were being treated. She insisted on waiting for her own treatment.
“It was clear to me that there were those in more need than I was.”
In Forestgate, East London, Yasmin was with her three-day-old baby Alia. Things were a blur for the new mother, but she remembers feeling numb that one of the bombing victims, Shahara Islam, a 20-year-old bank cashier, was a member of her local community. “Because she was Muslim, it was thought she was responsible for the attacks. But she was a victim like everyone else.”
A few days later Yasmin was in the waiting room at the baby clinic. “I was the only Muslim non-white woman there. The other mums were discussing very angrily the events that took place and saying ‘them b******* should just get out’. One of the mothers talked about ‘them’ wanting to establish an Islamic state in the UK. I sat quietly as I was in pain with my stitches.”
These two mothers of children born in the same week as the July 7 terror attacks, in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people, are worried about what the future holds for British Muslims.
The dangers of violent extremism prey on their minds.
Recently, three teenage girls from East London travelled to Syria; a 17-year-old British Muslim boy carried out a suicide attack in northern Iraq. They are also fearful of hardening government policies that see Muslim children as potential terrorists, and the growing social hostility that asserts they are outsiders.
They believe the answer is to build strong foundations for their children by explaining what it means to be a Muslim and how to live well in society.
“Our children need to understand their religion, to understand ‘why’ they should do something,” says Yasmin. She discussed the shootings in Tunisia with her daughter.
“I told her, he’s a madman! In Islam you’re not allowed to do that. The true Muslims were the ones protecting their guests, because that is what Muslims do.”
Ameena teaches her son to identify good character by looking at actions, not words. “We’ve talked about those horrid Daesh. Nothing in their character is good, they don’t have knowledge, justice, kindness or mercy.”
Both Ameena and Yasmin play active community roles, working hard to build relationships with their neighbours, whatever their background.
Their determined efforts to guide their children away from extremism because of its incompatibility with their Islamic faith is at odds with a recent speech given by David Cameron accusing British Muslims of “quietly condoning” terrorists.
The government is putting in place internet monitoring of Muslim pupils. “There’s a lot of online dangers to children,” says Yasmin. “Cyberbullying, girls being forced to suicide. So protection is a good thing. But not as an antiterrorism measure.”
The government recently outlined signs of radicalisation, which include not celebrating Christmas. Ameena gives this short shrift.
“Are Muslims supposed to dress all in red at Christmas and hand out presents from a sack?”
She thinks government guidelines that “British values” must be taught and children monitored for Britishness are also poorly thought out. “How do you even define Britishness? You need to have criteria to measure it. And you need to tell me what’s on your scale. That’s the only fair way to do it.”
She is worried. “That 3 million people voted UKIP makes my stomach turn. The amount of vitriol and violence is worrying,” she says referring to the anti-immigration party and its performance in the UK election in May.
That is why Yasmin does not want her real name to be used. “I genuinely feel a threat. I don’t want anyone to bomb my house.”
She is right that there is a growing tide of anti-Muslim hatred. Children as young as 10 have been involved in hate crimes against Muslims, according to a study published by Teesside University last month which recorded 548 incidents between March last year and February.
The way terror incidents are discussed by the government and media is a huge factor in spikes of anti-Muslim hatred following attacks.
One of the study’s authors says: “Where the media stress the Muslim background of attackers, and devote significant coverage to it, the violent response [against Muslims] is likely to be greater than where the motivation of the attackers is downplayed or rejected in favour of alternative explanations.”
The two mothers see the direct impact of these discrepancies.
“When ISIL does something disgusting to non-Muslims we rightly say a prayer,” says Yasmin about the school where she teaches. “But I had to specifically point out Muslims are being tortured and killed in far greater numbers. If we don’t demonstrate we care about everyone including Muslims then we’re telling our children Muslims don’t matter.”
She mentions the recent church killings in Charleston. "There are terrorists of all races and religions and this needs to be explained clearly."
“The way you use words matters” is Ameena’s closing advice to the government. “If they want to stop extremism, they need to stop using extremist language, and stop treating all Muslims as though they are potential terrorists. But the government’s comments are pushing us further apart.”
As for the future, Yasmin is hopeful of a more tolerant society, but cautions: “It has to be a two-way partnership to work.”
foreign.desk@thenational.ae