For a moment, after a suicide bomb ripped off both her legs, Gill Hicks thought she had died. It took an hour for emergency medical workers to make it to the deepest tunnel of the London subway, and she drifted in and out of consciousness. But she remembers vividly finding a label on her wrist in the hospital: “One unknown, estimated female.”
TransformativeThis label transformed her life perhaps as much as the July 7 attacks that struck at the heart of London’s public transport system 10 years ago.
“What that label told me was that people were prepared to risk their lives and save as many ‘unknowns’ as they could... all that mattered was that I was a precious human life,” Ms. Hicks (now 47) said in a recent interview near the King’s Cross subway stop, the site of the attack. “For me, that created a powerful shield against hatred.” The 7/7 bombings, as they came to be known in Britain, are in many ways the country’s 9/11. Four suicide bombers blew up three subway trains and one double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing 52 civilians and injuring more than 700. It was an awakening for a country that had long prided itself on its laissez-faire multiculturalism: All of the bombers were Muslims who had been born and raised in Britain.
As Britain and other countries face the next generation of terrorists, one thing is still largely missing from counterterrorism strategy, Ms. Hicks said: empathy with the terrorists. Not because they deserve it, but because it is the best hope to defeat them.
“Only if we can understand why people do this, how even educated young professionals can be persuaded to kill and maim innocent people, can we prevent it from happening again,” she said. “Prevention should be one of our greatest priorities.”
Once the publisher of an architecture magazine who wore trendy black and was steeped in London’s design scene, Ms. Hicks now runs Making a Difference, or MAD, an organisation dedicated to counter-extremism and peace-building with partners in Britain and Australia. (A native Australian, she moved back home in 2012 after living in London for 23 years).
A few years ago, she walked nearly 200 miles on prosthetic legs from Yorkshire — home to three of the four 7/7 bombers — to London, inviting Muslims and non-Muslims along the way to join her and to talk to one another. Hundreds did.
The journey took one month and her physical recovery six more, she said. But it was worth it: “Neighbours who hadn’t spoken before or after the bombings, now did.”
It’s not always easy to remain positive and optimistic, she acknowledged. “I’m absolutely angry. It’s such a senseless thing,” she said. “I’ve got a little 2-year-old — it makes life that much more complicated being a double amputee.” But her anger is also her fuel — “positive anger,” she calls it. — New York Times News Service
