June 16, 2016 shall be remembered as a dark day in modern British history. Labour Party’s Member of Parliament (MP) Jo Cox was brutally murdered outside her constituency’s office in broad daylight by a white supremacist, who supported the far-right British political party, Britain First. The United Kingdom (UK) has one of the toughest gun laws in the world enforced since the late 1990s, unlike the United States, and such a gruesome act being committed is a matter of grave concern. Cox was an advocate for pro-European Union (EU) policies and also used to raise considerable amount of voice in relation to the atrocities being committed against Syrians, Kashmiris and Palestinians. Not only this, she also used to work on providing protection and relief for refugees who fled their war-torn lands. Not surprisingly, she was considered a true champion of human rights even amongst her detractors.
Cox’s assassination has sparked widespread outrage within the British community, and the policies of Britain First and its leader Paul Golding have unanimously been condemned. In the past couple of years, the UK has witnessed a gradual increase in intolerance and hatred against minority groups, such as those belonging to the Muslim community or South Asian and the black diaspora. This intolerance is also seen against those members of the British community who advocate for freedom of speech and right to live in the UK for minorities. White supremacist organisations and sub-groups have risen dramatically with the English Defence League (EDL) and British National Party (BNP) among the first ones followed by the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
The BNP got disbanded after showing extremely poor performance but Britain First is considered to be its ideological successor. Its leader Golding even disrespected Sadiq Khan’s victory as mayor of London by ignoring the election victory speech made by the newly elected mayor from the British-Pakistani community. However, the good news is that Britain First is largely despised across all corners of the confederation, as modern British society is considered to adopt multiculturalism as part of its social fabric.
Nevertheless, serious deliberation is required over the motives of Britain First and those who hold similar views. The two core reasons are that the assassin of Cox also had ties with US based neo-Nazi groups as the gun used for murder is said to be an antique. There are also reports that Cox received threatening messages for the past few months but no action was taken to increase her security. This must be looked upon as a failure on part of the British police. The other core reason is that Britain First leadership in Wales was allegedly carrying militant training for its supporters and also threatened to harm and kill prominent personalities of minority-origin such as Khan.
This is an eerie reminder of the situation in Pakistan where intolerance against minority groups has been prevailing for some decades now. Britain is a free society with strong human rights laws where such kind of intolerance must not devour the societal structure. British security apparatus and government agencies must hold people like Golding accountable for their rhetoric-based politics that is no less than that being committed by Donald Trump. Whether extremists belong to the far-right white supremacist groups or the Islamic community, all of them should be closely monitored and perhaps even banned from carrying out their threatening activities. Community engagement programmes must also be regularly held to promote harmony within the local neighbourhoods. Being considered the mother of democracy, the UK has lots of potential to re-achieve its racial harmony and protect its citizens from zealots of various kinds. *