[michael247]

London’s Burning
The Breakdown of Capitalism

Ramadhan 1432 AH | 9th August 2011 CE

By www.LCIS.tk Staff Reporter Bassam Miah

The current situation
Rampant looting and raging fires engulfed swaths of London on Monday as the wave of civil unrest that has gripped this sprawling capital escalated sharply. The images of violence — with hundreds of youths looting shops, setting businesses ablaze and clashing with police in over a dozen neighborhoods has deeply shocked all decent and responsible Londoners. The events have led an enormously damaging blow to the international confidence in the ability for the London services to cope particularly with it being less than a year before the start of the Olympics in July 2012.

Prime Minister David Cameron cut short a vacation trip to Italy and returned to London overnight to chair an emergency COBRA meeting to handle the mounting crisis. Overwhelmed by the scope of the violence, the embattled Metropolitan Police called in reinforcements from police forces outside London to help cope and promised an increase of 10,000 police officers to flood the streets of London.

“Nobody should go out on the streets unless they have business to do so,” said Simon Hughes MP on BBC News 24. Kit Malthouse, the Conservative Party chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (standing in for Boris Johnson), said: “Obviously there are people in this city, sadly, who are intent on violence, who are looking for the opportunity to steal and set fire to buildings and create a sense of mayhem, whether they’re anarchists or part of organised gangs or just feral youth, frankly, who fancy a new pair of trainers.”

Former London mayor Ken Livingstone, suggested that the Tottenham riot was an unleashing of pent-up resentment over the weak economy, high unemployment and historically deep budget cuts that are decreasing government funding for poor communities and grass-roots charities. He blamed a sense that young Britons are facing “the bleakest future“ and “this is the first generation since the Great Depression that have doubts about their future,” he told the BBC.

But others — including Britain’s coalition government — denounced the spreading riots as an extraordinary spree of opportunistic “criminality” after the Tottenham unrest.

What are the Causes?
There has been much discussion about the potential root causes to the series of events that are unfolding in London and the rest of the UK. Some claim that the actual cause is due to the lack of employment for large swathes of disgruntled youth who see no future, no jobs and no further studies. Others, notably the BNP blaming the nations’ immigration policy over the past 50 years for creating gangland ghettos and actively encouraging the immigration of blacks whom they see as playing a central role in the current conflicts.

The true reality is that the causes for such riots are much more deep-rooted and deep-seated. Although the initial violent actions started due to the murdering of a black father of four in Tottenham, the riots seem to be a reaction to much pent-up aggression that has culminated due to institutional racism, a breakdown of the family, socio-economic exclusion, a widening of the rich-poor divide, lack of investment for the under-privileged, lack of opportunities, but greatest of all a complete lack of morality and guidance.

Many of the youth today have been brought up in single-parent households where there is no father figure, they spend their time watching violent films, playing violent games or lurking the streets causing nuisance. They are not taught how to respect at schools, educational establishments, nor from their families. They are actively taught to be atheistic and believe that they came about by chance and will not be accountable for their actions. They see attending youth correction facilities and prisons as being badges of honour that they can show off to their gang members and places where they can learn new tools to ply their often illegal trades.

Pop-stars and footballers, who are overpaid, act irresponsibly, have little idea about what modesty is and spend their wealthy frivolously provide the backdrop to the father figures that these youth are looking up to. The Capitalistic society that they find themselves immersed in, cries out to them to wear the most expensive trainers, listen to the latest music, wear the best labels and marks and have the most sleek and advanced electrical equipment.

A mix of increasing wants, greed and individualism, lack of funds, and respect for people mixed in with dugs and alcohol are the catalyst for an extremely volatile reaction.

Economic Austerity Measures fanning the flames?
The scenes of the rioting spreading to middle class areas such as Enfield, Ealing and Clapham is an indication of society’s inability to create social harmony and a sense of individual responsibility. As the global markets tumble as fears persist of US/European debt and the threat of a double dip recession starts to hit home the already shaky social morality is beginning to unravel. This can be witnessed in the rise of far right groups across Europe such as the EDL (English Defence League) in the UK and the PVV (Party for Freedom) in Holland coupled with violence in Greece due to economic austerity measures and the UK are just the tip of the iceberg alongside a rise in Islamophobia as well as attacks on other minority groups, as life becomes more difficult.

Capitalism is good at creating materialism and the love of it within the masses and totally fails to teach its citizens patience and endurance when times are difficult. If we compare the western societies with those in the Muslim world such as Somalia (with its current famine), Iraq (during 10-years of biting economic sanctions after the first Gulf war), Libya (economic and political sanctions throughout the 1990s after the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing) and Pakistan (US imposed sanctions after the Ghauri Nuclear Missile test) we can see that despite all their sufferings the people in such nations have never lost their dignity and resorted to looting stores en-masse, rather they have put their trust in a higher being, whom Muslims call Allah (swt), and held onto the dignity the Islamic values give them.

One should ask why the Muslim youth in London are not rioting and participating in these events? Indeed, we find the Muslim youth acting responsibly and helping to police their neighborhoods such as East London’s Whitechapel, Ilford and Slough against these rioters. The Muslim youth have shown they are not dependent on any secular law and order nor CCTV cameras to be able to self police themselves and contribute positively to society, as they have an inner awareness of God (Taqwa) in their hearts and an inner accountability—that He, the Almighty, is the All Seer and All Knower (as-sami’ul aleem), aware of all things. And that stolen property has no blessing (barakah) within it in this life and in the hereafter as it is considered usurped (ghasb), and indeed if taken, will act against them on the day of judgement when they will be held accountable for every penny of their wealth-how they obtained it and how they spent it. This belief in the hereafter self polices the Muslim youth and is cultivated further in the month of Ramadhan when the fasting promotes a greater awareness of Allah, the creator of man life and the universe and the sole provider of provisions (rizq).

For wider society, the lack of belief in the hereafter and a final staging post of accountability has opened up the door to the uptake of anarchic, nihilistic and atheistic ideas in society (devoid of any social morality and clear understanding of right and wrong) and we see its consequences. “..and defraud not people of their things, and commit no corruption in the land.” [EMQ 26:181-183]

The Keys to emerge from this Quagmire
In order for society to progress and prevent such disgusting scenes of looting, destruction and thuggery from being repeated, the British public needs to take a long, hard, deep look at itself and be open, pragmatic and honest in looking for a true and enduring solution. One should neither be racist, xenophobic, nor take an approach that the developed so-called ‘scientific’ world knows best, but rather should be open and welcoming to all solutions where-ever they may emanate from. Such problems need to be nipped in the bud to prevent its ugly head ever re-emerging and in this section we will propose a number of different solutions that may help.

As Muslims living within the UK, we propose the following solutions:
· All students need to be taught morality and basic manners. In the same way pupils should be made to study maths until they leave school at 18 according to a review of maths teaching standards in England carried out by Carol Vorderman on behalf of the Con-Dem alliance, we believe they should also be taught Religious Studies at GCSE and at AS/A2 level (as a compulsory subject). The religious studies AS/A2 programmes already developed by the AQA and Edexcel examining boards are excellent mechanisms for students to study ideas about God, accountability and our role in society as upright citizens. AS Religious studies is now being taught in colleges in North East London with good uptake by students as well as good results. Students report positive feedback about the course having enabled them to think deeply about their own faith and how faith can be a stabilising factor in any society, it has helped to iron out the feeling of anger amongst some Muslim students towards wider society and the perceived injustices and began to make them socially responsible members. In order to make this idea a reality, governmental funding would need to be directed towards upskilling teachers to be able to teach religious studies in a way that doesn’t undermine religion but shows it in its positive light. Too often you have irreligious people sceptical about faith teaching religious studies and hence transferring their scepticisms to the students.

· As a society, we need to start to restructure the economy to reduce the perceived injustices within it. The economic principles enshrined in the Qur’an and Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (s) are quite competent to solve the major economic problems faced by the world today. While Islam allows the private ownership and market economy (unlike the socialist/communist model) they also provide a well considered system of distributive justice which may eliminate the inequities from the economic life and bring about a system in which profit motive joins hands with the collective interest of the society. Islam does not deny the individual liberty which in turn curtails the zeal for production. Experiments have shown that the basic factor for creating inequities in the Capitalist economies was the unbridled use of the profit motive, and the absence of a criterion to differentiate between just and unjust earnings which concentrated wealth to be a narrow circle of a few rich people.

The instruments of interest (riba), gambling, speculative transactions and the tools exploiting immoral desires of the consumers to secure huge profits were allowed to operate in the market which then tend to create monopolies and in turn paralyse the forces of demand and supply (laissez fair) or at least obstruct their operation in full sway. The rate of interest has a constant tendency to favour the rich industrialists who benefit from the wealth of the common people who deposit their savings in the bank, and after making huge profits do not allow the common people to share these profits except to the extent of a fixed rate of interest which is again taken by them back through the increase in their cost of production. Similarly, gambling is a major instrument for concentrating the wealth of thousands of men to a very few people and for promoting the disastrous motive of greed income. The speculative transactions are also a major source of disturbing the natural market operations and contribute further to the inequities in the distribution of wealth. In short, the system having no limits or checks and balances is always open for every sort of commercial activity regardless of their bad effects on the economy. Islam not only admits the market forces but also provides a mechanism to keep them operative with their natural force without being hindered by monopolies.

In order to maintain an atmosphere of healthy production and equitable distribution, Islam has applied two types of controls on the economic activities. The first type of control is via the use of Islamic instruments like musharakah (a joint enterprise in which all the partners share the profit or loss of the joint venture) and mudarabah (one partner gives money to another for investing in a commercial enterprise with an agreement at the outset on the proportion of the actual profit each partner is entitled to) instead of interest. The use of these two instruments may make the common people directly share the fruits of development which may bring prosperity in a balanced manner reducing the gap between the rich and the poor. The second type of control is to exercise the institution of zakah (a 2.5% tax on peoples savings as opposed to a tax on peoples income, irrespective of their ability to pay or not), sadaqat (charitable giving) and a fair and just distribution of inheritance monies (by appointing fixed shares for each inheritor)-this would have the effect of distributing the lawful (halal) incomes of peoples to the persons who could not earn enough due to insufficient market opportunities. By establishing these institutions the wealth has been kept under constant circulation and the chances of concentration of wealth are almost eliminated1.

· One of the major Qur’anic concepts is al-Amr bi al-Ma’ruf wa al-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar, enjoining right conduct and forbidding indecency2. The Qur’an establishes the noble office with great emphasis and assigns this office to the Messengers of God and on all those who are qualified to fulfill this assignment. The Qur’an insists that socio-economic ethics which emanate from al-Amr bi al-Ma’ruf wa al-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar and their application should not remain confined to the private life of an individual but should be promulgated with mutual cooperation, support and ceaseless efforts to the community at large with wisdom, love, peace and fair admonition. Having said that, one of the principal aims of al-Amr bi al-Ma’ruf wa al-Nahy ‘an al-Munkar is the establishment and promotion of humanism. Many non-Muslim members of human society share this owing to the conviction of their own faiths and are willing to cooperate with Muslims in this noble task. Indeed, this is a precedent which the Prophet of Islam himself set by taking the pledge hilf al-fudul, with the polytheists of Makkah and he (saws) reported with dignity and pleasure in his Madinan life that he was most willing to take such pledges whenever they were provided. The Muslims in the UK along with like minded people at regional level have already taken small-scale measures for their own security by setting up neighborhood watch schemes in local boroughs. This has led in general to a reduction in the number of crimes.

Likewise, Muslims need to work with other like minded individuals and organisations to stop other immoral acts from spreading posing a threat to humanism and a functioning British society. In a multi cultural society such as the UK, joint campaigns are badly needed to tackle the issue of drugs, local crime, sex outside of marriage, lack of respect for parents and the elderly. “…help you one another to righteousness and pious duty. Help not one another to sin and transgression..” [EMQ 5:2]

1. Integration of Ummah’s Economy On Islamic Lines – Chief Justice of Pakistan, Muhammad Taqi Usmani (paper presented at the Motamer Al-Alam al-Islamic Conference, Islamabad, Pakistan (Sept 1997)
2. The Most Comprehensive Qur’anic verse on Socio-Economic Ethics and its Relevance to Modern Life, Dr Muhammad Ibrahim H. I. Surty, QAF Quranic Arabic Foundation.


LCIS Research and Analysis Team
Aug 2011
www.Lcis.tk