It is the violent interruption of an ordinary day that makes acts of terror so powerful. At first, July 7th 2005, was just an ordinary day. My then-fiancé was on his normal morning commute to work. Then, I realised it was only a miracle that he wasn’t on one of the three fateful trains that were blown up 10 years ago in London.
Terror affects all of us, everywhere. In Norway, it was 69 people enjoying a retreat at Utoya Island. Last month it was nine people attending church in Charleston. Last week it was 27 fasting worshippers at Friday prayers in a Shia mosque in Kuwait, and 38 tourists on a beach in Tunisia.
We realise at these moments that we are all constantly vulnerable to those in our midst. Yet all of us put our trust in those around us – into those who are similar to us as well as those who are very different – to respect our lives and protect our humanity. We trust these people we live among, and expect them to return the trust. When violent interruption comes, we instinctively stand together. Or at least we should.
By contrast, terrorists propel themselves forward on the binary idea of “us or them”, seeking to shatter this trust and to pit us against each other.
They thrive when this black and white view of society is echoed back to them, reinforcing their world view. They whisper their devilish words into the ears of the vulnerable: we told you that they hate you, that they want to destroy your way of life.
Yet foolishly, world leaders respond time and time again to terror incidents involving Muslims with echoes of exactly the same words: they hate us, they want to destroy our way of life. It is about “our values”, and about “existential threats”. This is “us”. What hangs loud but unspoken in the air is that everyone else is “them”.
British prime minister David Cameron spoke of how British Muslims are supposedly “quietly condoning” ISIL. Nobody in their right mind and with a human heart is “quietly condoning” extremists. To suggest such a thing is to ring-fence Muslims as outside the trusted circle of “our values”, to say in all but the words that they are of a lesser humanity.
Leading newspapers and commentators even get away with the astonishing suggestion that only the violent extremist version of Islam is “real”.
The way to neutralise the ideas of extremists is not to echo and reinforce them. The right way is to create a sense of belonging, shared trust and to see them as natural and integral elements of society. Muslims believe that the state can be their ally, if it stopped viewing them only as potential security risks.
The vulnerability to terror begins when we buy into the distinction between them and us. It can be erased by reinforcing trust between us, within and across societies.
On the beach in Tunisia, the Muslim hotel staff formed a human chain to protect the tourists who were the gunman’s target. “You must get past us first,” they told him.
When it comes to dealing with terror, it is this powerful image of the human chain that we must replicate: standing together, hand in hand, against those who seek to perpetrate terror .
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of Love in a Headscarf and blogs at www.spirit21.co.uk
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
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The biog
Age: 23
Occupation: Founder of the Studio, formerly an analyst at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi
Education: Bachelor of science in industrial engineering
Favourite hobby: playing the piano
Favourite quote: "There is a key to every door and a dawn to every dark night"
Family: Married and with a daughter
COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Stree
Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
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Napoleon
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HAJJAN
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
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EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
The%20Color%20Purple
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Specs%3A%202024%20McLaren%20Artura%20Spider
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MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 0 Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 55')
Man of the Match Allan (Everton)
Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
Roll of honour 2019-2020
Dubai Rugby Sevens
Winners: Dubai Hurricanes
Runners up: Bahrain
West Asia Premiership
Winners: Bahrain
Runners up: UAE Premiership
UAE Premiership
Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes
UAE Division One
Winners: Abu Dhabi Saracens
Runners up: Dubai Hurricanes II
UAE Division Two
Winners: Barrelhouse
Runners up: RAK Rugby
Tree of Hell
Starring: Raed Zeno, Hadi Awada, Dr Mohammad Abdalla
Director: Raed Zeno
Rating: 4/5
RESULTS
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Brraq, Adrie de Vries (jockey), Jean-Claude Pecout (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 1,200m
Winner: Taamol, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Turf) 1,800m
Winner: Eqtiraan, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
8.15pm: UAE 1000 Guineas Trial (TB) Dh183,650 (D) 1,400m
Winner: Soft Whisper, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Hypothetical, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m
Winner: Etisalat, Sando Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe
