For a minority to prosper, the goodwill of the majority is crucial.
As we witness riots in Britain’s cities we need to ponder why these are taking place, but by keeping religion out of it. According to the media it is the far right groups that are rioting while chanting “enough is enough”. The catalyst for these disturbances is the killing of three little girls by a young man whose parents are immigrants from Rwanda. He walked into a children’s music class on a Saturday morning and attacked the children and two teachers, one of whom teaches yoga. They and other children were critically injured and some are still in hospital. The authorities have not confirmed if the attack is terror related. A few weeks earlier a soldier was attacked with a knife and narrowly escaped death. Ever since the arrest of the culprit, there is no further news of him and no one knows what his motivation was.
Over the last 20 years there have been many terrorist outrages in the UK. On 7 July 2005, four suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured over 770 in a bombing in bombing. The Manchester bombing on 22 May 2017 killed 22, including children, and injured more than a thousand. The London Bridge attack on 22 May 2017 killed 8 and injured 48. On 3 June 2017 a car was driven into pedestrians at Westminster Bridge and a police officer stabbed to death. On 29 November 2019, 5 people were stabbed on London Bridge and 2 died. On 22 May 2013, a British army soldier was killed in a terror attack. This list is not exhaustive. All the attacks were carried out by immigrants or their children or a refugee.
I too came to this country as an immigrant as did tens of thousands from Uganda when they were expelled by dictator Idi Amin. The people of this country left no stone unturned in helping us settle here. While the British took care of our elderly, found jobs and provided the best education to our children. Volunteers came to our homes to teach the elders English and helped us understand the way things worked in this country. By the 1980s, the governments passed law after law to stamp out any discrimination against minorities. Millions of pounds were spent in translating important information in the languages of the immigrants. Bank managers lent money so that the immigrants could start businesses.
We were free to practice our faith, our culture, there were no restrictions. The country continues to absorb tens of thousands of newcomers every year. The illegal refugees coming by boats are still accorded a welcome by ordinary British men and women. This pattern is repeated in Australia, Sweden, Germany and many other countries. We have had a Hindu Prime Minister in Britain and the new generations born in the UK have excelled in every field of life. Britain has given us everything without any preconditions. What then is the reason for the strife we are seeing?
This is because some immigrants and refugees are pushing for more and more demands that are clashing with the British way of life and its values. The inner cities have immigrant gangs, drug dealing and the grooming of white British girls for shocking sexual exploitation. Knife crimes causing deaths takes place almost every week. Major institutions as well as political leaders dare not speak about things that are going terribly wrong because of the fear of being called racist. The result is that discontent amongst the white British people is simmering and has reached a boiling point. The last straw was the killing of the three little girls by the son of an immigrant. Riots have broken out. The media and the politicians are blaming the far right groups. I think they are just the tip of the iceberg. The white British people in their millions are not happy at the way their country is drifting towards anarchy.
There is an urgent need for a new dialogue in which the ethos and values of the indigenous people (for want of a better word) are adhered to and respected. Minorities can also be wrong, they can also be unreasonable and confrontational. They can be bullies too. A majority is not always wrong just because it is a majority and a minority is not always right just because it is a minority. It is obvious that the European and Canadian model of integration is not working. Whom can we learn from? It is the United Arab Emirates.
Dubai has absorbed tens of thousands of immigrants from many countries. They are free to practice their faith. However there is no street crime or violence. The politics of the immigrants’ mother countries are not allowed to take root on the streets of Dubai. Recently, some Bangladeshis organised a protest in Dubai on the conflict back home. They were arrested and jailed and will be deported. In the name of the fundamental right to practice the politics of their mother countries, the immigrants are tearing apart diverse communities. In Dubai, you have to respect their way of life and meticulously follow the laws of the land. You do not find graffiti in Dubai or rubbish thrown on the streets. There is no street crime. No drug addicts roam the streets. Women are safe. There is no mindless violence. There is fear of authority. In contrast, many European cities are dystopian nightmares. European countries need to abandon their laissez faire attitude. Riots have to stop, the targeting of places of religious worship has to stop. The government needs to listen to the grievances of the white British majority. Calling them extremists is not going to work.
For a minority to prosper, the goodwill of the majority is crucial. When the dust has settled you are going to need a teacher, a doctor, a job and if the minds are poisoned, inevitably the minorities will suffer at every step of life. Meanwhile, in a reversal of roles, India and many other countries are advising citizens to be careful about travelling to the UK.