Seething Unease Shaped British Bombers' Newfound Zeal.
Amy Waldman.
- New York Times, 2005.
- SIRS Enduring Issues 2006. Article 56, Global Issues, 1522-3221; .
Articles Contained in SIRS Enduring Issues 2006. Originally Published: Seething Unease Shaped British Bombers' Newfound Zeal, July 31, 2005; pp. A1+.
"The discipline of Mr. Khan, 30, was shared, and not just with his friends Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, who joined him on a murderous assignation in London on July 7 [2005]. The three men and Germaine Lindsay, 19, detonated four bombs that killed 56 people, including themselves. Mr. Khan, Mr. Tanweer and Mr. Hussain were part of a larger clique of young British-raised South Asian men in Beeston, a neighborhood of Leeds, who turned their backs on what they came to see as a decadent, demoralizing Western culture....But the question asked since their identities were revealed after the bombings continues to resonate: what motivated men reared thousands of miles from the cradles of the Muslim world, without any direct experience of oppression themselves, to bomb fellow Britons, ushering in a new chapter of terrorism." (NEW YORK TIMES) This article explores the backgrounds of the London bombers and discusses "the difficulty some children of Muslim immigrants in Europe have had in finding their place or direction" and who have since discovered "a new assertive and transnational identity as Muslims."