Dear ATCA Colleagues

[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

This comes close on the heels of the two vehicles stranded in the heart of London's West End shopping and theatre district with car bombs made from gas canisters, gasoline and nails left the day before yesterday. UK police are conducting one of their biggest ever manhunts. The UK Home Office has raised its terrorist threat assessment to the highest level, "critical,'' from "severe,'' meaning an attack is expected imminently. It was last at "critical" in August 2006, after the foiled airline bomb plots.

Glasgow airport was closed and evacuated yesterday, and two people were arrested. "We believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London,'' Strathclyde Chief Constable Willie Rae has said. "There are clearly similarities, and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident.''

The terror incidents come days before the second anniversary of 7th July, 2005, when four Islamic extremist suicide bombers killed 52 people on London's transport system in the deadliest strike on the city since World War II.

COBRA, the UK Cabinet's emergency committee, met twice yesterday after convening the previous day in response to the London bombs. "It is right to raise the level of security in airports and in crowded places in the light of the heightened threat,'' Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a televised statement after the COBRA meeting. He said the London incidents and the Glasgow "attack'' should remind people to be "vigilant."
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We are grateful to The Lord Desai of St Clement Danes, based at the Palace of Westminster, London, for his submission to ATCA, "The Roots of Terror: Islam or Islamism? Distinguishing between Religion and Ideology."

Professor Lord Meghnad Desai -- Baron Desai of St Clement Danes -- (born 10/07/1940) is a British economist, writer and Labour politician. His recent book, "Rethinking Islamism: The Ideology of the New Terror" [IB Tauris / Palgrave Macmillan] was published in December 2006. Born in Vadodara (Baroda), India, Desai grew up with his four siblings - two brothers and two sisters. He went straight to secondary school at the age of five, matriculated at 14, was an Honours student before he was 18, had a Master's degree before age 20, and a PhD at age 22. After he secured a Master's degree from the Mumbai School of Economics (then Bombay School of Economics), his parents wanted him to become an elite Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer. But the qualifying age was 21, and he was still 19. In between, he won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. He left India in August 1960. From Pennsylvania, where he completed his PhD in 1963, he served as an intern at the London School of Economics and got a job there in 1965. In 1989 he married fellow-economist Gail Wilson. Lord Desai has written extensively on a wide range of subjects. From 1984-1991, he was co-editor of the Journal of applied Economics. He has been both Chair and President of Islington South and Finsbury Constituency Labour Party in London and was made a life peer as Baron Desai, of St Clement Danes in the City of Westminster in April 1991.

In 2002, Lord Desai wrote a book Marx's Revenge: The Resurgence of Capitalism and the Death of Statist Socialism which states that globalization would tend toward the revival of socialism. He published a biography of Indian film star Dilip Kumar titled, "Nehru's Hero: Dilip Kumar in the life of India" [Roli, 2004]. He has described the book as his 'greatest achievement'. Examining Kumar's films - some of which Desai has seen more than 15 times - he discovers parallels between the socio-political arena in India and its reflection on screen. He discusses issues as varied as censorship, the iconic values of Indian machismo, cultural identity and secularism, and analyses how the films portrayed a changing India at that time. During the course of writing this book he met Kishwar Ahluwalia, his second wife who worked as an editor for this book. On July 20, 2004 he married Ahluwalia. Desai, then 64, and 47-year-old Ahluwalia, were both divorcees and married at a registrar's office in London. In 2005 he retired as Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, which he founded in 1992 at LSE, where he is now Professor Emeritus. He is Chairman of the Trustee's Board for Training for Life, Chairman of the Management Board of City Roads and on the Board of Tribune magazine. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. He writes:

Dear DK and Colleagues

Re: The Roots of Terror: Islam or Islamism? Distinguishing between Religion and Ideology

Religion is a private matter or at least ought to be. Religion provides solace to the troubled psyche of many when they are puzzled by accidents of life such as sudden death of a beloved person. Yet religion is often in the public arena. Every religion has been used as a tool for aggression and violence, to instil hatred of the people of other religions. No religion has a monopoly of virtue though each will claim the others are worse.

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Best wishes

Meghnad Desai

[ENDS]