英國是怎麼開始輸出恐怖分子的？-道格拉斯·穆瑞

【美國記者詹姆斯·弗萊遭恐怖分子毒手的畫面令人震驚。兇手的英國國籍更是讓歐洲國家坐立不安。不過源自英國的伊斯蘭聖戰分子卻並不是最近才突然才冒出來的。英國時評人道格拉斯·穆瑞詳細回顧了近20年有關英國籍伊斯蘭聖戰分子的案例。原文發表於《旁觀者》（The Spectator）網站，原題“Britain’s beheaders —— how we came to export jihad”，觀察者網李晽譯。】

這是一張最近人們所熟悉的夢魘般的圖片。一名下跪的俘虜，在他身後，一名穿戴黑色罩帽的男子對着攝像機講話。站着的男子指責西方並且宣稱他所信仰的那種伊斯蘭正在遭到攻擊。隨後他對人質執行了斬首。為什麼週三這部早晨的影像會如此受人矚目？因為這回的俘虜是一名美國記者——詹姆斯·弗萊——而且謀殺他的人毫無疑問説的是一口倫敦腔。

作者道格拉斯·穆瑞《旁觀者》博客截圖

近期伊斯蘭主義者暴行所引起的強烈反響毫無疑問是可以理解的。不過，這並非是一次性的偶發事件，當然也並不能説是反常現象。倒不如説這是一種完全可預見潮流的延續。英國長久以來恐怖事件輸出的中心，正如美國政府高官表明的那樣：下一次針對美國本土的攻擊有可能來自英國公民。所有國家——從澳大利亞到斯堪的納維亞——都和伊斯蘭極端主義者關係不佳。不過如果整個世界懷疑英國已經成為國際反聖戰主義中薄弱環節的話，那麼這麼説並沒有什麼太大的過錯。一名來自倫敦的英國人斬首美國記者，類似事件甚至並非首次出現。

2002年，27歲的奧馬爾·沙克在巴基斯坦逗留。作為一名生於倫敦北部的私立學校和倫敦經濟學院的畢業生，他於20世紀90年代奮戰在巴爾幹和克什米爾。94年，他因涉嫌在印度綁架三名英國人和一名美國人而遭到逮捕。為了挽救印度航空航班IC-814的機組人員和旅客，作為交易，奧馬爾於94年得到釋放。隨後他又涉嫌於2002年一月在加爾各答，實施了美國文化中心的爆炸案，還於同月策劃了綁架《華爾街日報》記者丹尼爾·珀爾並隨後將其斬首。

如果回到那時，人們也許還可以説，奧馬爾·沙克不過就是個一次性的偶發事件——一樁恐怖的意外。到底有多少生於倫敦的學生參與到伊斯蘭極端主義中去或者接受激進伊斯蘭佈道者的影響，奧馬爾的母校對這些並不理會。這種不理會雖然後來變得更難於維持了——不過校方還是繼續不理會——甚至當兩名英國人，21歲，來自豪恩斯洛的阿斯夫·哈尼夫和27歲的奧馬爾·汗·沙立夫——他們實施了位於特拉維夫碼頭區一家酒吧的自殺性炸彈襲擊的時候。奧馬爾·沙立夫曾經是倫敦國王學院的學生，國王學院就坐落在倫敦證券交易所對面。這場襲擊造成3名以色列人喪生，超過50人受傷，哈馬斯宣稱對這一事件負責。

隨着英國出生的聖戰分子人數逐漸增長，他們的行動也隨之和英國本土發生更為緊密的關聯。2005年7月7日，英國出生的穆斯林第一次製造了在英國本土自殺性炸彈襲擊事件。兩星期以後，又發生了4起自殺性炸彈襲擊未遂事件。2009年聖誕節，倫敦大學學院的伊斯蘭社團領袖在一架飛機於底特律着陸時，試圖起爆一枚炸彈。去年，兩名伊斯蘭教改宗者在倫敦南部於光天化日之下將鼓手李·瑞格比斬首。必須值得注意的是，上述只不過是那些最受到廣泛關注的案件。不過被優秀安全部門或者純然運氣所忽視的案例數量令人震驚。除開持續的定罪結案，每年至少尚有一件大規模針對英國公眾的暴行企圖被忽視。至於小規模的暴行企圖就更不用説了。大家都還記得對李·瑞格比的謀殺，可是還有幾人記得帕維斯·汗位於伯明翰的恐怖分子監獄？由於之前曾綁架一名英國穆斯林士兵並將其斬首，汗於2008年被判有罪。

所有的這些時間，隨着聖戰分子人數的增長，他們可以進行訓練的場所也在增加。預計有4000人從英國前往阿富汗接受訓練或是加入戰鬥。根據其他來源，英國公民前往敍利亞和伊拉克參戰的人數預計可能在500到1500人之間。如果如果前面那個較大的數據是正確的話，這個人數規模將會比當前在英國武裝力量中服役的穆斯林人數還要多。其中的一些聖戰分子從國外返回；還有一些則在戰鬥中被殺。不過現在明確的是，無論我們喜歡還是不喜歡，這都是英國的大問題。

極端分子對敍利亞戰事的參與正在英國境內擴散。類似於其他的一些衝突，在敍利亞參加戰鬥的英國人似乎——正如殺死詹姆斯·弗萊的兇手那樣——來自倫敦。這和其他的一些情況是一致的，包括聯合王國境內有據可查的恐怖主義判決，這些判決表明過去十年內，針對英國本土的近半數受伊斯蘭極端主義而引發的恐怖襲擊，都是由被捕時居住在倫敦的一些個人所犯下的。

不過上述對敍利亞戰事的參與同時正在向伯明翰和其他一些擁有大量穆斯林人口的地方擴散，以及一些會讓廣大民眾感到吃驚的一些區域。今年二月份，有消息稱，來自西蘇塞克斯郡克羅利的阿卜杜拉·瓦利德·馬吉德成為了一名自殺性炸彈襲擊者。2月6日，還有一名英國人針對敍利亞阿勒頗的一處監獄，製造了一起卡車炸彈襲擊事件，這名英國人卻並不説阿拉伯語。

5月份，一名據信是來自倫敦的英國人在社交媒體Instagram上，發佈了敍利亞境內聖戰分子的戰爭罪行，其中就包括謀殺一名據信是巴沙爾·阿薩德支持者的囚犯。其中一名向俘虜發射子彈的人已經被確認為一名英國人，這名英國人在另外一部視頻中還嚴厲指責英國穆斯林沒有為聖戰提供足夠的支持。“你知道你是誰”，他説道，“從首都、中部到北部，無論你可能處於何處……這都是恥辱，兄弟們知道這些主婦們在哪裏，這些家庭在哪裏，但你們仍然為你們的子侄購買PS4或者帶着他們去Nando餐廳。”

伊拉克與黎凡特伊斯蘭國中出現大量來自歐洲的成員，這令歐洲國家驚恐萬分

這樣一份名單還在繼續不斷增添着名字。有來自卡迪夫的年輕人。還有一些來自普茲茅斯。這個月的早些時期，來自倫敦西部的阿卜杜勒-馬吉德·阿卜杜勒·巴里出現在一張他發佈在推特上的照片裏。在圖中，他拎着一顆被斬下的頭顱，自己還為圖片配了一個標題“和我的老夥計一起放鬆，或者和他剩下的部分一起”。這是敍利亞成為英國聖戰分子奇怪聯接的部分表現而已——一種街頭耍酷、伊斯蘭極端主義和極度殘暴的混合。甚至這些人在社交媒體上進行交流的語言方式也是令人熟悉的。例如來自普茲茅斯19歲的馬蒂·哈桑，發佈了自己的一張媒體圖片，手中拿着一罐慕斯，以此來安慰前來的英國人，他們不會缺少樂子。

當然，有一類説法聲稱如果我們只要離開所有這些地方，那麼所有的這些就不會奔着我們來了。但是我們離開了巴爾幹卻創造了整整一代的聖戰分子。我們還沒有離開阿富汗和伊拉克——卻已經創造了另一代的聖戰分子。如今我們很大程度上已經離開了敍利亞——瞧瞧看，我們大概又創造了一個聖戰分子的世代。很顯然，無論離開還是不離開，你都被詛咒了。不過很明顯，很少有人似乎意識到了這一切並不是真的與我們有關。

儘管如此，這些事情還從未像今天這般離本土如此之近。近幾周，伊拉克與黎凡特伊斯蘭國所使用的黑色聖戰旗幟公開地在倫敦飄揚——伊拉克與黎凡特伊斯蘭國的支持者已經在牛津街頭出現——以及在其他的一些地方。就在這周，一座威爾士主要清真寺的伊瑪目決定辭職，之前一名親伊拉克與黎凡特伊斯蘭國的佈道者受邀在這座清真寺發表演講。

這場戰鬥正在這個國家的家庭與清真寺裏持續進行着。我們害怕把這些點連接起來。比起進行反擊，我們更為懼怕來自國際社會的批評。

這個曾帶給世界大部分地方以自由的國度，如今正在向世界的大部地方出口恐怖主義。這周斬首視頻令人難過，如果我們不想未來再繼續出現更多這類恐怖主義影像的話，那麼英國需要進行自我反省，並且致力於解決這一問題。

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It is the now familiar nightmare image. A kneeling prisoner, and behind him a black-hooded man speaking to camera. The standing man denounces the West and claims that his form of Islam is under attack. He then saws off the head of the hostage. Why did Wednesday morning’s video stand out? Because this time the captive was an American journalist —James Foley— and his murderer is speaking in an unmistakable London accent.

The revulsion with which this latest Islamist atrocity has been greeted is of course understandable. But it is also surprising. This is no one-off, certainly no anomaly. Rather it is the continuation of an entirely foreseeable trend. Britain has long been a global hub of terror export, so much so that senior US government officials have suggested the next attack on US soil is likely to come from UK citizens. All countries — from Australia to Scandinavia — now have a problem with Islamic extremists. But the world could be forgiven for suspecting that Britain has become the weak link in the international fight against jihadism. And they would be right. This is not even the first beheading of an American journalist to have been arranged by a British man from London.

In 2002, 27-year-old Omar Sheikh was in Pakistan. A north London-born graduate of a private school and the London School of Economics, he had gone to fight in the Balkans and Kashmir in the 1990s. In 1994 he was arrested and jailed for his involvement in the kidnapping of three Britons and an American in India. Released in 1999 in exchange for the passengers and crew of the hijacked Air India flight IC-814, he was subsequently connected to the bombing of an American cultural centre in Calcutta in January 2002 and that same month organised the kidnapping and beheading of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

Back then it was possible to dismiss Omar Sheikh as a one-off — a macabre fluke. His alma mater shrugged off concerns about the number of London-based students who had got involved in Islamic extremism or the radical preachers touring the country. The shrug became a little harder to maintain — though maintained it was — the next year when two British men — Asif Hanif, 21, from Hounslow in west London and Omar Khan Sharif, 27 — carried out a suicide bombing in a bar on the waterfront in Tel Aviv. Omar Sharif had been a student of King’s College London, just across the road from LSE. That time the glory of killing three Israelis and wounding over 50 was claimed by the terrorist group Hamas.

As the list of British-born jihadists grew, their activities also got closer to home. On 7 July 2005, British-born Muslims carried out the first suicide bombings on British soil, with four more attempted a fortnight later. On Christmas Day 2009, the former head of the Islamic Society at University College London attempted to explode a bomb on a plane as it landed in Detroit. Last year, two converts decapitated Drummer Lee Rigby in broad daylight in south London. It is important to keep in mind that these are just the most high-profile cases. But the list of cases which were thwarted by good security work or sheer luck is astonishing. As well as the constant stream of convictions, at least one large-scale mass atrocity attempt on the lives of the British public was thwarted each year. As were smaller attempts. Everybody still remembers the killing of Lee Rigby, but how many people recall the case of Parviz Khan’s Birmingham terrorist cell? Khan was convicted in 2008 for a plot the previous year to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier on video.

All the while, as the list of jihadists grew, so did the number of places where they could train. Perhaps as many as 4,000 people from Britain are thought to have gone to train or fight in Afghanistan. Estimates of the number of British citizens who have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq range from just over 500 to 1,500 (a figure from Khalid Mahmood, a Birmingham Labour MP). If the larger figure is correct, it would be significantly higher than the number of Muslims currently serving in Britain’s armed forces. Some of these jihadists have returned; some have been killed fighting. But it is now obvious that whether we like it or not, this is Britain’s problem.

Involvement in Syria spreads across Britain. As with other conflicts, a large proportion of the Brits going to fight in Syria appear to be — like the murderer of James Foley — from London. This is in line with other work, including a list of all terrorism convictions in the UK to date, which shows that almost half of Islamism-inspired terrorism offences and attacks on UK soil over the last decade were perpetrated by individuals living in London at the time of their arrest.

But involvement in the Syrian conflict has also spread to Birmingham and other places with large Muslim populations, as well as some places that will have surprised the wider public. In February of this year it transpired that the 41-year-old Abdul Waheed Majid from Crawley, West Sussex, had become a suicide bomber. On 6 February the non-Arabicspeaking Brit carried out a truck-bombing against a jail in Aleppo, Syria.

In May, the Instagram account of a British man believed to be from London shows other jihadist war crimes from Syria, including the killing of a prisoner believed to be a loyalist of President Bashar al-Assad. One of the people shooting bullets into their captive is identified as a British man who in another video berates British Muslims for not providing enough support to the jihad. ‘You know who you are,’ he says, ‘from the capital, the Midlands, up north, wherever you may be… it’s a disgrace, that brothers know where these wives are, where these families are, and yet you are buying your nephew or your child a PlayStation 4 or taking them out to Nando’s.’

The list goes on. A cell of young men from Cardiff. Others from Portsmouth. Earlier this month, Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary from west London appeared in a photo he himself posted on Twitter. He is pictured holding a severed head with the caption ‘chillin’ with my homie, or what’s left of him’. This is all part of the strange juncture that Syria has become for British jihadis — a meld of street cool, Islamic extremism and ultra-violence. Even the register in which these men communicate on social media is familiar. For instance Madhi Hassan, 19, from Portsmouth, sent out a media image of himself holding a jar of Nutella, to reassure Brits coming over that they would not lack all comforts.

Of course, one line of argument claims that if we just left all these places alone then none of this would come to us. But we left the Balkans alone and created one generation of jihadists. Then we didn’t leave Afghanistan and Iraq alone — and created another generation of jihadists. Now we have very much left Syria alone — and lo and behold, we seem to have created another jihadist generation. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, apparently. Yet remarkably few people seem to realise that this isn’t really about us.

Nevertheless, it comes ever closer to home. In recent weeks the black flag of jihad as used by Isis has been flown openly in London — supporters of Isis have appeared on Oxford Street — and elsewhere. Just this week, the imam of a leading Welsh mosque resigned after a pro-Isis guest preacher was invited to speak at his mosque.

This battle is going on in households and mosques up and down this country. We fear joining up these dots. And we fear giving offence more than we fear the international opprobrium that is coming our way.

The country that brought liberty to much of the world is now exporting terrorism to large parts of it. Britain needs to look to itself, and address this problem, if there are not to be many more videos like this week’s.