Black Youth, terrorism and the moral blindness.
The brutal killing of the young British solider Lee Rigby on a British
High Street in Woolwich South London by religious fanatics was deeply
shocking. The fact that such a savage and grisly attack can take place
on a busy British street in broad daylight has left the nation numb with
shock and bewilderment.
This was a 21st century murder, broadcast almost live in real time and
instantly transmitted across the world. The images we’ve seen on the
front page of our newspapers, and on our television screens were
horrific and bloody.
The question haunting everyone now is how can seemingly ordinary couple
of black British guys from South East London end up committing such an
act?
The personal tragedy for the murdered young man and his family seems
almost to have been overshadowed by the complete dominance in the print
media of the murderers whose pictures were plastered on every front
page. I refuse to name them here in a small act of personal solidarity
with the family.
One can only imagine the pain and grief his immediately family must be
going through. They are now condemned to be forever reminded of the
graphic nature of his death suffering a living hell with a memory that
will be forever etched into their minds.
Watching the news over the last couple of days, I was struck by a
number of issues that I think are important. The overwhelming majority
of the news has focused on analysing the story from the perspective of
terrorism and utilising the usual array of largely white and Asian
Muslim experts and representatives.
Given the men themselves are black and of Nigerian origin this struck
me as slightly odd. The dominant news narrative seems to almost wish
they had been Asian and in that desire has simply labeled them ‘Muslim’
fitting them in to a convenient and stereotypical category that reflects
and allows for simplistic and naive commentary.
Of course what is missing from the debate and in some sense, is the
huge elephant in the room, is the fact that these young men are African,
they are black British men and largely unknown to many they are part of
the largest single ethnic minority group in London according to the
2011 census. That is an important aspect of this story, and I will tell
why I think so.
The fact is that the real lived experience of British black communities
suffering the damaging effects of societal racism is a narrative that
is largely missing from the mainstream British news agenda and
completely absent from the Government’s agenda. I am not for one moment
seeking to suggest, in any way, shape or form, that these grotesque
murderous act are justified. I am, however, suggesting that a minority
of young black British people, be they of African or Caribbean descent,
many of whom suffer deep economic exclusion, deep political
marginalisation and acute social demonisation from wider society, can be
particularly susceptible to both violent criminality and sometimes,
radical conversion by religious fanatics.
Take a step back and think about it, why would British born black men
brought up in a Christian family here in England be seduced into such
fanatical extremism? The conversion rate of young people of African and
Caribbean descendent to Islam has been spectacular over the last 10
years.
In 2004, I was interviewed by the London Evening Standard on this
issue, I highlighted the fact that religious fanatics, claiming to be
Muslims were targeting disaffected black youth in Lambeth to their
cause. Their experience of racism and injustice perceived by black boys,
their sense of powerlessness makes some of them, particularly
vulnerable to such perversion.
But here it’s important to note, and I will return to this point later,
that a minority of British black boys are first seduced into the
violently criminality of gangs as a consequence of family
dysfunctionally, made acute by profound economic exclusion and their
constant criminalisation as a result of a resurgent institutional
racism, infecting the operational focus day to day policing as a result
of the continued existence of a culture of racial profiling.
The local gang in Lambeth were engaged in robbing local drug dealers in
the name of Allah, (Peace Be Upon Him), and giving the proceeds to
Mosques and their mentors. They would force local drug dealers to
convert to Islam and renounce Christianity or face a merciless beating
or death. Their modus operandi was total and extreme violence and that
culminated with the murder of Adrian Marriot in 2004 who was shot five
times in the head for failing to convert and he was but one example.
This gang was terrifying and brutal and the fear that they spread In
Brixton was palpable. Streets would empty of young people at the merest
suggestion that the gang were in the neighbourhood. These guys were
frugal and Spartan, there was no ostentatious ‘ghetto bling’ lifestyle.
They were disciplined, they slept on a single mattress, in empty
unfurnished rooms with high calibre weapons and a Koran. They were
forensically aware and under arrest, they never gave any information.
I had, at the time raised my concerns with local MPs but as usual when
confronted with something that is outside their understanding, they
chose to ignore me. It’s a condition many black people face is raising
issue of concern only to be ignored and proved right later on In
Britain, all black claims of racism, much like essential truth’s all
start their lives as blasphemies. I was aware that young black boys in
Lambeth were being taught a perverted version of Islam that claimed that
any crime against a non-Muslim was permissible, and that they should
engage in a war against criminal drug dealers using the profits to
support the struggles against British and American forces in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
I was dismissed as a fantasist, but I knew these young men were being
trained by someone who had much more knowledge than the average teenage
wannabe gangster. Far too late the Police woke up to the reality of this
insidious threat and arrest were made and the gang eventually was broke
up and jailed.
However, the problem of radical conversion did not disappear. The
general rate of conversion of black young people in jail continues to be
a cause for concern.
There is nothing to fear from genuine Muslim converts who are
outstanding in the extent to which they serve as role models for others.
However, there are others who are sometimes come from dysfunctional
families, who suffer deep alienation and psychological issues that are
susceptible and vulnerable to seduction of extremism.
We are all now sadly aware, of the so called ‘Shoe Bomber’ Richard
Reid, the involvement of Germaine Lyndsey in the terrible atrocities of
London’s 7/7 bombing of London and the composition of the 21/7 failed
bomb attacks again including black African youth.
Young black men excluded by racism within education and from the labour
market, unable to get jobs, who can’t afford to go to college or
university, are harassed by the police force that brutalises and
criminalises black men, and who face the grave injustice of a
criminal-justice system that dishes out disproportionately heavy
sentences to black men.
All this creates a pool of angry young men that religious extremists
are able easily target. The injustices they face are explained and made
rationale through the lens of religious bigotry.
Disaffected, alienated, unemployed, rejected and demonised by society
results in some of our black boys, who are particularly vulnerable being
seduced into the cause of extremism. Well documented acts of atrocities
in Afghanistan and Iraq at the hands of the Americans and British only
add to their feeling of injustice.
And even closer to home the reality8 of 56% black youth unemployment
rate as of January 2010, (comparable with youth unemployment in Greece, I
dread to think what the figure is today), deep racism in the
recruitment practices of the private sector, the profound institutional
racism of the criminal-justice system, all provide the perfect petri
dish for the fermentation of rage and anger.
The Reach independent report to Government on raising the aspirations
and attainment of Black boys and young Black men and published in 2007
estimated that tackling under-achievement among black boys and young men
could benefit the economy by £24 billion over the next 50 years. The
report accepted that the cost to the country of continuing to allow
black boy remain effectively marginalised on the fringes of society
would be enormous. Since that report was published that alienation has
increased whilst the important recommendations have been left to wither
on the vine.
Racism and the race of these two young black men, who committed this
terrible murder in Woolwich, is the elephant in the room that most
people don’t want to talk about because it fails to fit the convenient
well-worn anti-Muslim, terrorist narrative. It’s right we talk about the
preachers of hate, but we rarely discuss in any meaningful way the
socio-economic and race inequality environment in which these preachers
find fertile ground.
When you leave people to rot on the margins of society, they become
easy prey for those seeking to exploit their anger and vulnerability by
terrorists or criminals. I have in the past, been unfortunate in
correctly predicting the August riots of 2011 on the back of increasing
numbers of Black male deaths in police custody.
I could sense the tension in my community, but my concerns were
dismissed and largely ignored. Well here is a big red flag warning,
unless we begin to tackle the alienation that many black youth face we
could more conversions to extremism, and sadly with similar outcomes to
what occurred in Woolwich.
Alienation and racism are big enough problems in themselves but overlay
this with the double standards of section of the British press and
politicians that largely ignore the on-going scandal of black youth
violence and murder.
Our communities endure a youth murder rate that is unacceptable.
Intuitively, instinctively British black communities know and understand
that if the victims of killings were white middle class youth, there
would be a national outcry.
Society remains largely silent in the face of such carnage but erupts
in outrage when a white solider gets killed. Horrific, and symbolic as
the killing of this young soldier was, there were similarities in its
barbarity of the recent murder of Daniel Graham, who was chased by a
gang and stabbed multiple times on a London bus or that of Andrew
Jaipual of Islington stabbed between 20-40 times? Both in broad
daylight.
The reality is that the number of black young people in the UK who have
been brutally murdered over the period of the last 13 years exceeds the
number of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan during the
same period. What many in Black communities feel is that we are often
facing an internal war generated by long term poverty, alienation and
unemployment.
As the nation begins to reflect on the causes of the terrible events
this week, the racism and rabid Islamaphobia of the English Defence
League will feature large. And whilst the EDL and the BNP openly espouse
their bigoted views without true leadership from mainstream political
parties and beyond, many Britons will be silently sign up to at least a
watered-down version. Such effects could take us back to the 1970s.
If as a society we are to tackle some of the root causes of violent
extremism, and criminality, we will need to tackle both our moral
duplicity home and abroad, but also begin offer real opportunity and
hope to many more of our young men and women, Black and white.
Lee Jasper