Can terror be tamed?

Following the bomb blast that took place in Manchester, on 22^nd May 2017, families of victims have delayed all funeral processes as the investigation is still ‘underway’. One of Manchester’s biggest Muslim funeral providers, Central Mosque said that it would not have anything to do with Salman Abedi’s body as the act committed went against Islam.

As the Investigation Continues

Haras Rafiq, Director at Quilliam’s Counter Terrorism Think Tank said that Salman Abedi was seen to purchase material that would suffice more than one explosive device. In fear that Abedi may have made other bombs, the Manchester Police have raided various places in the city in connection to the attack, including a property at Rusholme. Much of the police investigation reveals that Abedi was mostly working alone; making bomb purchases himself, the fact that he may be linked to a larger network however, cannot be entirely ruled out.

Although Salman Abedi was reported on several occasions in the past, he was not included in the ‘Prevent Program’ which raises a number of questions. UK’s Military Intelligence, MI5 has launched an inquiry into how the Police dealt with warnings from the public.

Fixated on Immigration.

U.S President, Donald Trumph in a speech at the NATO meeting, in Brussels alleged that the attack on Manchester was largely linked to mass immigration. This seemed to have puzzled many people, as the attacker, Salman Abedi was ‘British-born’ to parents who had migrated from Libya. Dan Hett, a ‘UK-born’ Turkish Bafta winning digital developer was discouraged by popular generalizations made on media soon after the UK attack. Dan Hett is brother to Martyn Hett who was taken out by ‘UK-born’ attacker, Salman Abedi at the concert in Manchester.

Hett says that accussations of the attack being an ‘immigration problem’ startles him as the UK-born terrorist had taken out his UK-born Turkish brother and many others as well. This goes far beyond immigration; the focus should be mostly on how the attacker was radicalized without being monitored, because radicalization cannot happen overnight.

Confident To Win The Fight Against Terrorism?

Terrorism, by itself is not the absolute threat but what leads to it is where the ‘real’ problem lies. To a terrorist, his acts are more than justified; he acts in accordance to his ideology and notions. Policies instituted like the banning of people and things are aimed to protect a Country from terrorism but does it address the root causes of terrorism? By this method, we are only treating the symptoms.

Take the Manchester case for example, the bomber was born in the United Kingdom, which meant that attention should be given to the individual’s environment, ‘radicalization’ is a process that requires time and a much support for it to ‘ferment’ into an ‘act of violence’.