'BLOWBACK': Scotland, a different place after the bomb?
By Richard Mooney
It’s Saturday, your kids have just finished school for the summer and you’re looking forward to a long deserved break. They’re asking ‘are we there yet?’ on the way to the airport. It’s a long drive. You and your partner smile at each other. Two weeks in the sun. That long and well deserved break.
Except when you get there, you see smoke. As you get closer to the airport’s main terminal you see a burning Jeep Cherokee. ‘What’s going on? ‘You begin to think. The kids are curious and scared.
A severely burnt half naked Asian man screaming ‘Allah’ is being held too the ground by police and airport staff. There’s a scene and hundreds of Scottish holiday-makers just like you have realised what just went down.
The 30th June 2007 will be a date that will remain with Glaswegians and Scots for a very long time.
First Minister, Alex Salmond said hours after the debacle at GlasgowAirport that ‘we must not live our lives in a state of alarm’. The entire country was greatly affected by the failed suicide bombing.
GlasgowAirport was closed, sniffer dogs and a heightened police presence are placed at all major public places and for the first time ever Britain’s terror threat level was raised to critical.
There are five terror threat levels in place in Britain. The first is Low, meaning an attack is unlikely. The second is Moderate signifying that an attack is possible but not likely. The third is Substantial indicating a strong possibility of an attack. The fourth is Severe, warning that an attack is likely. The fifth and top level is Critical which suggests an attack is imminent.
Eleven days have passed since the terror attacks and life has been getting back to normal for the Scottish people. Nationwide there is the common understanding that Scotland is now a target for terrorists and that we are not as safe as we once thought.
Scotland’s Muslim community in particular has been greatly affected by the events of the past week.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, Secretary General for The Muslim Council of Britain said that Britain will be facing the threat of terror for a long time, but we cannot let it divide us a national community.
Dr Bari said: “Those who seek to deliberately kill or maim innocent people are the enemies of all of us. There is no cause whatsoever that could possibly justify such barbarity. Those who engage in such murderous actions and those that provide support for them are the enemies of all, Muslims and non-Muslims, and they stand against our shared values in the UK.”
He continued: “It cannot be stressed enough that terrorists actively seek to divide us and to undermine our collective strength. To be successful in our collective effort to deal with the threats of terror it is imperative that we all work together. We need to have confidence and mutual trust in each other. The challenges facing us as a nation require us to work together for the joint benefit of all.”
A number of incidents have occurred across the country since the bomb attack. A Glaswegian, Pakistani owned ‘One Stop Shop’ had a car rammed into it and the car was then torched in a style staggeringly similar to what went down on the 30th June. Across the country mosques have been vandalised with racist graffiti and several Asian businesses have been firebombed.
Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill met with members of Edinburgh Central Mosque on Saturday to discuss the events of the past week and how good relations can still be maintained with Scotland’s Muslim community.
He said: “"Scots Muslims are a hugely important and highly regarded part of modern Scotland. They do tremendous things for Scottish life and are very much valued as part of Scottish society. Communities don't commit outrages, individuals do.
"There are many threads to the Scottish tartan and many communities in modern Scotland. None of those communities should feel in any way scapegoated.”
The suggested motivation for the bombers was retribution for Britain’s involvement in the Iraqi War. The world is already divided over the now 4-year long conflict. In Scotland particularly you could probably ask ten different people for their take on it and you would most certainly get ten different answers.
Two doctors and no less than six medical students planned the failed bomb attacks in Glasgow and London. If the Iraq war is the prime motivator in these attacks and others worldwide then Glasgow and Scotland generally has not seen the last of terror. Britain is still heavily involved in the conflict and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
In the intelligence world the correct term for the attacks is ‘blowback’, it is a means to describe the unintended consequences of war, conflict or covert operations. Scottish spirit has continued to shine through though. The country is back to normal, but is more conscious of the terrorist threat.
The First Minister summed up the country’s recovery in the days that followed after the bomb attack. He said: "With every passing hour, the country is getting back to business. That is a message of hope and resilience that must overcome the anxiety and fear that the terrorists seek to spread."
