Last Sunday night, early Monday morning saw a devastating terrorist incident at Finsbury Park Mosque, London, which left one dead and several injured. The man who committed the atrocity was held by the Imam, who stopped violence bestowing the individual. An act of compassion and a sense of real justice overcame hate and fear in a moment that you could be forgiven for a knee-jerk violent reaction. But that was not the case and the Imam proved that, another way is possible.
However, since the incident there has been little coverage from the media and the normal outrage (understandably) and calls from the government to do more to combat extremism have either gone completely or overshadowed by the Grenfell Tower fire.
A media whitewash?
Grenfell Tower was a terrible incident and a consequence from conservative austerity policy since 2010. But the attack on Finsbury Park Mosque is a consequence of the same austerity but from a different avenue and it isn’t being treated with the same severity as it should be. It was a right-wing terrorist attack and this is likely to be an ingrained societal issue that the government needs to combat in equal measure as issues such as Grenfell Tower and the previous Islamist terrorist attacks in London and Manchester.
The media have been mostly ignoring the attack with only updates every so often. Even though, with the attacks in London and Manchester, most of the media hounded the government for answers and the far-right themselves tried to place blame on the likes of Jeremy Corbyn, who has only ever sought peaceful solutions.
But this attack has been mostly ignored by the far-right and right-wing media because it doesn’t fit their view of what a terrorist looks like. There have also been complaints that the attack didn’t have a question on BBC’s Question Time this week, when recent incidents in Manchester and London were featured heavily.
Austerity helps create extremism
The reason why the attack itself is linked to austerity is because of the rhetoric of blame by those right-wing hate preachers such as Nigel Farage, Katie Hopkins, the Daily Mail, Daily Express and The Sun. The Daily Mail claimed the usual ‘lone-wolf’ and ‘mental health problems’ rather than say what it was, a terrorist attack.
Those who preach hate use the state of austerity to further their personal agendas of hate towards other cultures ideals. Communities that have been left to rot by the Conservative Party over the last 7 years have still often voted Conservative.
Nine out of the ten poorest regions in the EU, are in Britain and every single one of those voted for the Conservatives at the election. Despite it being the fault of Conservative policy, that has affected them but rhetoric against immigration from those hate preachers and other media complicity to spread this false rhetoric has helped create the environment for far-right extremism to blossom. There are always videos of people verbally and sometimes physically attacking foreign nationals, largely Muslim, on the grounds of their beliefs and where they come from.
Brexit has contributed massively to the rise in far-right extremism and it has only been a year since the vote to leave. Islamist hate preachers are usually locked up or deported but far-right hate preachers are left to their devices and treated as mainstream. Nigel Farage and until recently, Katie Hopkins were given platforms by LBC, the latter also has a regular Daily Mail column. Arron Bank’s Westmonster and Leave.EU platforms play a significant role on social media in exploiting austerity to preach their divisive hate, often spreading fake news and hiding opinion as ‘news’.
The need to combat extremism
The government needs to do more to stop the rise in far-right extremism, as they have currently allowed it to thrive and become mainstream.
But the Conservatives have currently been their furthest right-wing than at any time in their recent history. With blame, often being placed on immigration to hide the ideological attack on the country. The corporate system has gained too much power and society has suffered, but there is fight back and real change could be afoot very soon. The general election has provided a footing for Jeremy Corbyn and the youngsters who voted for him.
