White nativism and the decline of the West

Mosques, the lifeblood of most Muslim communities, have become a target of racist mobs across the United Kingdom. They symbolise certainty in a time of turmoil. The Muslim community need not change our actions in the face of such vile provocation.

by MUHAMMAD JALAL

WHAT we have seen play out across the UK, the rioting by what many would correctly call far-right white nativists, is part of a broader phenomenon: the decline of the West. Its undoing belongs more to the West itself than to any perceived advance by Muslims. However, Muslims represent to white nativists all that they have lost at the hands of a neo-liberal nightmare – community, family, hope, justice and fraternity. To the many left behind, the walking wounded of a once virulent Western empire as it began to wane, Muslims are a constant reminder of their emasculated lives brought on by this decline. This is why the Mosque, the lifeblood of most Muslim communities, has become a target of racist mobs across the United Kingdom. It symbolises certainty in a time of turmoil. The Muslim community need not change our actions in the face of such vile provocation.

This tumult in Western hegemony will be played out across continents and countries. European democracies are flailing in the face of the so-called far right that campaigns on a diet of Islamophobic hate. The Trump phenomenon, equally grotesque, also reflects an unease that has captured the West and is most pronounced at the epicentre of this empire.

White nativists are an expression of this Western decline. They observe the contracting opportunities for themselves and their children and are told to blame Muslims by a self-serving elite that has run out of ideas. Gullible and pliable public xenophobes like Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson and Andrew Tate perpetuate this narrative to feed this conveyor belt of hate. They give credibility on the street to a feral hatred that was fermented by men in suits, met like the grotesque Douglas Murray, who believes in the Great Replacement Theory – the idea that there is a liberal plot to dilute white culture through mass migration. It’s the only recourse rogue politicians can turn to save their power and patronage. And the media, of all political persuasions, allows this hatred to fester. It’s a conveyor belt to manage decline. A crumbling colossus will always be an ugly phenomenon.

For sure, nefarious actors, chiefly Israel and Russia, are stoking this culture war for their agendas. One Tommy Robinson, seen to be behind the most recent spate of riots, works with Israeli groups to foster hatred. These riots chime with Israel’s anger after the Muslim community across the UK punished politicians at the ballot box. In some constituencies, Labour, who won a landslide, found that their vote had dropped by more than 40%. The so-called Gaza vote successfully brought to parliament an unprecedented five independents and cut Labour’s majority in dozens of seats with large Muslim populations. This, however modest, is viewed by Israelis as a crack in a narrative that has for so long beaten down conscientious voices and managed within the Muslim community through community gatekeepers beholden to a two-party system.

But there is a willing surrender in the West to find an outlet for a brewing anger. This is why here in Britain, Labour politicians find it difficult to defend Muslims, yet in the same breath, condemn the rioters. Keir Starmer has declined to call it Islamophobia lest he is accused of siding with Muslims. It’s a subtle acceptance of the mobs, maybe not in tactics but in their demands. The virulence of the Muslim community, despite our many challenges, remains aligned in purpose and possesses a community togetherness that often immunises against the neo-liberal carnage that plagues the world. This is also why the BBC would omit to mention in multiple reports that the original trigger, at least ostensibly, the murder of three young girls, was perpetrated at the hands of a non-Muslim who had no connection to the faith. It’s a grotesque prejudice that confirms their desperation.

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Decline is an ugly affair. And the decline of this empire, however slow and terminal, is leading to ruptures that require the othering of Muslims to give elites some little space to continue an economic and military order that feeds a few at the expense of the many. We are in an era of crisis, and our strength will come not from conformity but as principled voices of opposition and justice.

This article was first published in Muhammad Jalal’s online newsletter, The Thinking Muslim.