London Riots: A Rethinking Time
By: Amjad Ali Dadda
Dated: 03–09–2011
London is one of a great city in the western world and is the center of modernity and freedom. The violence fire and looting mostly started after police shoot dead a black man named Mr. Mark Duggan who was shot dead by police after the alleged attempt of shooting on police. The family of Mr. Duggan raised a protest that was erupted into one of the horrible riots London saw in recent history. This is very clear that these riots have nothing to do with the killing of Mr. Duggan but that incident gave a way to all pressure that was hidden in the master craft of cosmopolitan life of London. This is really the best time for rethinking some phenomenon which is shadowing over our recent human history. One is War against terror and other is spreading trend of extremism in human societies. All this from Indonesia to Pakistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Norway, UK, and the USA is mainly due to growing trend of unemployment as it is spreading fast in cities like London where it is increasing day by day. People, especially from excluded communities which are already facing problems and feeling the pressure of being excluded from the mainstream, are now showing their anger. The social structure in the society is also main reason for this spread of violence and lootings as the majority of looters in London riots are young people. The freedom and liberty concept of the west is now becoming hell for the societies as no parents know where their son or daughter is at this time and what these doing. Recently London Police chief made a request to parents for calling their kids to home and to know where they are. The question is when these things were being practiced in eastern societies and in Africa, these so called modern men were calling it against human liberty and freedom of youth. Now when they faced a problem they are doing same as it is in that part of the world.
Interesting thing is that the majority of young looters are looting alcohol, cigarettes, mobile phones, jewelry, and computers. Because it is what they were trained for by the actions of their elders as one of important need for human life and now when they got the opportunity to get it by any mean they are showing their skills, by breaking into shops and looting what they like. Few young men were caught while they were selling computers in 20, 30 pounds after looting laptops from shops like Curry. There is also an incident of looting retailers, property offices, banks, jewelry shops and other business. This looting also spreading into Birmingham and Liverpool after it was the third day in London. This is a really dangerous sign for a western world which was blaming the third world for poor governance and to Islamic countries as the center of extremism. If we analyze this phenomenon we can understand that poverty, deprivations over years are causes in these developing and underdeveloped countries that are main reasons behind the extreme reaction among the youth of these nations. Now the question arises what made these young Britons into such violence and extreme behaviors? This was also question arisen after a gunman killed 90 plus people in Norway. He was a Christian extremist who killed people while they were celebrating the holiday. Man brutally killed dozens of people. If he was a Muslim the media was to blame Muslim countries and Aqeeda (though at start tried to link it with War on terror and war in Afghanistan even prime minister of Norway in his televised address said we were target because we follow principals of freedom and liberty) Thanks to God that madman was not a Muslim, interestingly when the media found that this man was not Muslim and was an extremist Christian someone in west did not blame Christianity or any Christian group but called it individual incident. This is same media in the west which blamed Muslim world and Islam for actions of 16 or 17 attackers of World Trade Center in 2001.
Governments of the west should focus on the safety of their own citizens instead spreading their brand of democracy in the Muslim world by bombing innocent civilians there. No need to blame Muslims for the action of few dictators or CIA trained terrorists (in past) who now turned against them for some mutual clashes of interests. There is a greater need for religious harmony instead blaming and propagating against Muslims as it is now a favorite subject for western commentators. There are many writers who blame Islamic philosophy behind those terrorist activities now they should realize by these events of Norway and London that its same as happened in Britain and Norway any individual or group with economic, social and political suffocation or even with some religious extreme views can act against humanity but there is no need to blame all community as we cannot blame all black community in Britain for these riots in London. Each type of people from every sect and religion with racial background are a victim of these kinds of criminal acts. Governments should rethink all their anti-human right laws of detentions. There is also need to review all economic decisions that are pushing world economy to a dark corner where every stock market is facing a slide down. There looks way towards stateless societies in the world as governments are benefiting few who are occupying resources with all legal and illegal means. Socialism looks in its comeback period as countries from Indonesia to the USA are facing ethnic and social conflicts after economic downfall in the global economy. There is a need for intellectuals to stand together to raise their voices for the revival of the social contract between the state and common men. This contract should be based on the betterment of common man and states should come out from old concept of defense state to welfare state by focusing more on the welfare of their citizens instead launching pre-emptive wars or actions within countries and asking masses for more sacrifices.
