Leading article: Hatreds that need exposing

[babsbunny]

Leading article: Hatreds that need exposing

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-hatreds-that-need-exposing-1786418.html

Sunday, 13 September 2009

The street violence outside a new mosque in Harrow last week was the worst in a recent series of running battles provoked by right-wing groups. The immediate cause of the fighting, which has flared up in several British cities in recent weeks, has been aggressive demonstrations by groups called "Stop the Islamification of Europe" and "English Defence League". They have succeeded in goading young Muslim men and far left groups into responding and sometimes into attacking the police. Plainly, ignorance about Islam is an underlying factor, but the causes of this conflict are a little more complicated than that.

The English Defence League seems to have arisen in reaction to the demonstrations by Islamicist extremists against British soldiers parading in Luton, which suggests there is a two-way process at work. In an atmosphere of fearfulness, ideologists of hatred on both sides are using provocation to recruit supporters. On the anti-Muslim side, ideologists of racism seek to present Islam itself as a threat; while on the other, ideologists of jihadism seek to exploit the hostility suffered by many Muslims as a tool of radicalisation. This is obviously a dangerous and potentially mutually reinforcing mechanism.