Monday, September 14, 2009

Harrow riot

I was surprised to see on the news that a significant riot had occurred in Harrow on Saturday. I lived in Harrow, northwest of London, for most of my teenage years. I went to College in London from there and then moved away when I got married.
When I lived there it was a very quiet middle class area, not prone to violence and demonstrations. Apparently a mosque was built there on the main road three years ago to accomodate the large Muslim population that now lives around the area. When I lived there there were no Muslims to speak of.
The reason for the riot was a demonstration by a few hundred right wing extremists, belonging to a group calling itself "Stop the Islamisation of Europe" and the fascist group "The English Defense League." The former group was started in Denmark in response to the Muslim riots against the cartoons of Mohammed published in a Danish newspaper. The demonstration was organized to coincide with 9/11. There have been several previous such demonstrations in England, in Birmingham and Luton.
In response to this demonstration about 1,000 Muslim youths gathered to "protect" the Mosque. The riot police protected the lives of the right wing demonstrators and had to rescue some of them from a very dangerous situation. The Muslims rioted, attacked the police and threw stones and upended trash containers. Several were arrested and the police expect to arrest more.
This situation is an ongoing clash between English right wing groups and Muslim youths. When I lived in Harrow there were no pro- or anti-Jewish demonstrations, there were fewer of us and we were very quiet. Now the Jewish community is in a bind, they cannot support the demonstration of the right wing groups that also are anti-Semitic, but they also can't fully support the Muslim youths who are also anti-Semitic and are violent.
One Muslim spokesman called for police guards at all mosques in the UK to protect the worshippers, as there are outside all synagogues. The irony is that these guards are mainly there to protect the Jews against attacks by Muslims, that have been quite frequent in England.
I am glad that I live in Israel and have no role in this clash. Let them kill each other as far as I am concerned, they are both my enemies. Those Jews who live in England may be forced to choose sides, I don't have to. To avoid this bad situation, that is only likely to get worse, I suggest to all English Jews that they come and live in Israel. The weather is nicer and we don't have to pick sides, our self-interest is obvious.

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