CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE
PETER BERGEN is a fellow at the New America Foundation and a professor in the south Asian studies programme at Johns Hopkins University
TAMARA CHALABI is a writer. Her book on the Shia of Lebanon is forthcoming
MARK COUSINS is the author of The Story of Film (Pavilion Books)
RICHARD DOWDEN is director of the Royal African Society
STEPHEN EVERSON is writing a book on metaphysics and the mind
SUZANNE FRANKS is working on volume six of the history of the BBC
DEAN GODSON is the author of Himself Alone: David Trimble and the Ordeal of Unionism (Harper Perennial)
DAVID HARKER is the chief executive of Citizens Advice
DAVID HERMAN is a television producer and writer
TIM KING is a writer living in France
HANS KUNDNANI is writing a book about the 1968 generation in Germany
DAN KUPER works for London Underground
BEN LEWIS presents BBC4’s Art Safari
MICHAEL LIND is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, Washington
EHSAN MASOOD is a science journalist and project director of the Gateway Trust
KAMRAN NAZEER is a freelance writer
RUARIDH NICOLL ’s novels White Male Heart and Wide Eyed are published by Black Swan
GIDEON RACHMAN has been Brussels bureau chief of the Economist and “Manneken Pis”for the last four years
MATTHEW REISZ is the editor of the Jewish Quarterly
JOE ROEBER is a former journalist and oil consultant. He is a member of Transparency International
IAN STEWART is a professor of mathematics at Warwick University and the author of Math Hysteria (OUP)
AATISH TASEER is a former reporter for Time . He is writing a novel
DICK TAVERNE is the author of The March of Unreason: Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism (OUP)
WILLIAM TREVOR ’s collection of short stories, A Bit on the Side, is published by Penguin in paperback
4PROSPECT August 2005
contents Issue one hundred and thirteen August 2005
COVER STORY
18A British jihadist
AATISH TASEER
Hassan Butt, a 25 year old from Manchester, is a former spokesman for the extremist group alMuhajiroun. He helped recruit British Muslims to fight in Afghanistan. Like three of the London bombers, he is a British Pakistani who journeyed from rootlessness to radical Islam.
LONDON BOMBS 10Beyond grievance
KAMRAN NAZEER After the bombs, the politics of Muslim grievance must start to move on.
11They will change us
MICHAEL LIND If our way of life makes us more vulnerable to terrorism, we need a new way of life.
OPINIONS 14Blueprints not bombs
TAMARA CHALABI Federalism, oil and Islam dominate the debate as 70 Iraqis rush to write a new constitution.
16Too much credit
DAVID HARKER Labour has overpaid poor families by £2bn, but it’s no cause for celebration.
ESSAYS 26A real nightmare
PETER BERGEN The documentary The Power of Nightmares argued that al Qaeda is largely a phantom of the US national security apparatus’s imagination. In fact, the Bush administration ignored the terrorist threat prior to 9/11.
32Political climate
DICK TAVERNE It is possible to believe that global warming is happening, and has a big man-made element, yet also to think that Kyoto is not the right answer.
36Goodbye to the ’68ers
HANS KUNDNANI When Germany’s 1968ers entered government, hopes were high. But the red-green coalition’s achievements have been limited. Their main liberalising effect took place before they came to power.
