Today marks the 6th anniversary of the tragic 7/7 attacks that struck London, killing 52 innocent victims. Six years on the country still reels from the shock of such extreme terrorist activities on their own doorstep. But with all the time that has passed, a great sensitivity still hangs over the subject, where open and honest dialogue has not presided, pushing communities further apart. Very rarely do we hear what young people, or more specifically what young British Muslims have to say about it all and how the events have impacted or shaped their lives. Instead the audience is fed, well known figures that simply apologise and monotonously repeat “we are not all like that, it’s not Islam”, instead of providing an insight into the world of duel identity and how it can shape and form peoples perceptions. This only serves to fuel stereotypes and misunderstandings between communities.

Yesterday, I spoke to British Iranian rapper Reveal, an artist I am currently documenting about a verse he wrote entitled ‘7/7 memorial’, providing an alternative narrative to the tragic events. Here’s my interview with Reveal about this piece and what 7/7 means to him.

Can you tell me a little about your verse entitled 7/7 memorial?

Originally there was an incident in my local area, where the workers from the council office were encouraging locals to observe a two minute silence a week after the 7/7 bombings. At the time I had been in the office speaking to an adviser, who informed me

“I can’t talk to you at the moment, we have to observe the silence”.

Bearing in mind, I felt the complete injustice of the terrorist actions of 7/7 I also felt the need to question their views about the deaths of innocent Iraqis and Afghanis:

“Have you ever observed a two minute silence for those who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by Western bombs?”

This particular adviser responded by telling me:

“No, You can’t say that! No, you must get out!!”.

So it wasn’t surprising a few days later I received a letter from my local council complaining about my behavior. It got me thinking, about how the same situation can be perceived in so many ways, so in response I wrote the lyric. It doesn’t really have a title, but you can refer to it as ’7/7, A memorial’. It’s an a capella piece and I’ve never really put it to music, so it’s a spoken word piece.

The lyric is an attempt to make people look at what happens from alternative perspectives, I.e. to put themselves in the shoes of someone such as myself. Someone who is from the Middle East but has been brought up in the UK. When the events happened at 7/7 I naturally drew comparisons in regards to how deaths  in the Middle East by Western forces were reported vs how the deaths of the 7/7 victims were covered.

So how are these deaths covered and how are they ‘perceived’?

I felt that while the UK deaths were presented as tragic, which they were, the deaths in the Middle East were left to be described as faceless numbers with no real context. A contradiction exists: how can we be asked to observe silence for British people so unnecessarily and wrongly killed, but ignore the deaths of thousands across the Middle East due to war? I wanted to use the pain from those deaths to create a level of empathy and compassion, for what some may call the ‘other side‘. It’s very rare in the UK for death and destruction to be so close to home, where as in the Middle East 52 deaths by bomb blasts are a daily occurrence.

I in no way intended to disrespect anyone, or support any violent actions and I say this clearly on the verse twice. I have personally felt that level of tragedy and destruction in my life, and it made me re-evaluate a lot of things. I really hope this verse has the same impact.

The main message of the piece is unity. Achieving unity through accepting that as humans we are all equal and it is our own actions that separate us and that it’s not who we are its what we do that defines us.

What does 7/7 mean to you?

The fact that one of the bombings happened at Edgware Road tube station, in my own area really brought the issue home for me.
For me 7/7 is a day when people in the UK experienced a tragedy, but it’s the same tragedy that people in war zones have to live with every single day of their lives. I think what’s important to remember is that whilst we mourn the passing of the UK victims, we should also take time out to think about the ‘faceless’ numbers of people who have lost their lives in similar events world wide.

So what happened when you tried to film a video for the verse at Edgware Road station?

I was at Edgware Road station trying to record a little video on my iphone, just to put a visual to the lyric really. The train driver heard a section of what I was saying and alerted the station supervisor who came over and informed us he called the police, based on the ground we were ’enticing hatred’. His words were something along the lines of  “That hateful rubbish”, you can hear it on the video yourselves.

I attempted to explain the lyric and asked if he understood it, I even rapped the part where I say “no way killing innocent is right and this is not a disrespect”, but he wasn’t having any of it! Instead he went on to ask me why I felt the need to spread hatred, on the day of the memorial, I reminded him it was the 6th today, so the memorial is tomorrow. I mentioned I was Iranian and I am yet to see anyone observe silence for people who have been bombed in the Middle East. His response was: “If you don’t like it here mate….”, at that point I felt very frustrated and called him a racist. On hindsight I could have been more calm about the situation and handled it better, but to be honest stuff like that winds me up and really I have had enough of being treated like that, like I have to either have to choose to be British or Iranian, I truly feel that I am a bit of both.

So you knew it was illegal to film there, what was the problem?

I’m not stupid, I don’t think I have the right to violate laws, and film wherever I want. I knew what I was doing wasn’t technically allowed, but the lyric only a few minutes long and my friend was recording it on my iphone, we weren’t causing any commotion, getting in the way or disturbing anyone. The issue is had he approached us and asked us what we were doing and whether we had permission, I would have of course responded differently realising I was wrong for filming. My initial angry outburst at him was due to the way in which he chose to approach us, which was to physically put himself between me and the camera, proceeding to tell  us forcefully and with h no explanation that he has called the police and we should leave. On the way out of station I saw the train driver who had initially raised the alert and I again tried to explain my lyric and that I had not meant to offend anyone, unfortunately they just didn’t care.

I’m unhappy about the fact that he had already made his mind up, he didn’t even give himself the chance to really see we weren’t causing a commotion. In my mind the issue wasn’t about filming illegally, it was more about  being perceived as ‘inciting hatred’ and calling the police before even coming over to explain or ask us to stop filming. It raises the question in my mind, was this discrimination?

How do you think young British Muslims are perceived?

I think there is a stereotype of  the young, radicalised, British Muslim, however I just don’t fall into that category at all. What happened today shows me that as a non radical fundamentalist, who does not entice racial hatred and instead promotes unity can be placed into such a box, what is the situation like for other Muslims, or other more practising and more apparent Muslims? There’s a word for that, when you attribute certain actions to someone, not based on what their actual actions are, but on their social labels, that word’ prejudice.

If I was a white person with a guitar would my lyrics be perceived a different way? I really want to know, but I truly believe that the train guard wouldn’t have acted in such a way and I’m definitely not the sort of person to throw the race card around.

All this is going to do is create a guarded mentality where people are scared to speak their minds freely because they are worried about how they be labelled and perceived.  It’s not healthy as it does not promote an open forum for discussion and if we are not careful it will create further segregation in society.

Where can we hear the full transcript to the verse?

You can check my youtube page youtube.com/revealpoison

Reveal is London based Iranian rapper. You can find out more about him here.

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Here’s 7/7, A Memorial

& here’s a recording of part of the verse before Reveal was made to leave Edgware Road Station

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