This past fortnight, a man was charged by the UK authorities in connection to a terrorist plot to assassinate a lawyer at his office in London.
The man was clearly identified as an ideological extremist. If he had been a person of colour and a Muslim, it is likely that the incident would have received significant media attention, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson perhaps even visiting the law firm in solidarity.
But the man was a white supremacist, who was attacking immigration lawyers, following increased rhetoric only days earlier against "activist lawyers" by UK Home Secretary Priti Patel.
The Guardian newspaper reported comments from someone with knowledge of the case as saying: "If you had a dubious politician abroad inciting hatred and then a UK terror incident was traced back to what this politician had said, then you can only imagine the measures that would be taken."
It is a sobering thought.
Indeed, when extremist Islamist terror attacks take place, the immediate response from politicians has often been to see where the discourse underpinning such violence has been coming from, and to problematise it accordingly.
This may be the case even if the discourse isn’t itself inciting violence. In this case, the situation is rather more complicated, partly because it is the UK Home Secretary herself who was using her privileged platform to criticise the lawyers.
None of this should be taken to mean that Ms Patel is responsible for the attempted attack. There are likely to be many reasons why the perpetrator opted to take this course of action.
Also, Ms Patel wasn’t calling for violence. Nonetheless, there remain two issues of importance: the first is the duty of those in positions of authority to engage in responsible rhetoric, knowing that their speech may have unintended consequences. The other is to recognise that white supremacists are a far greater threat than we are willing to concede.
Clearly, many do not take that threat seriously enough. Even after the attempted attack, Ms Patel continued to dabble in rhetoric against the legal profession – even after the lord chancellor and attorney general directly warned her against it.
The situation worsened. Not only did Ms Patel intensify her discourse but Mr Johnson declared that the justice system was facing obstacles from within “by lefty human rights lawyers”.
Considering the attempted terrorist attack against a lawyer only days before – for ideological reasons not so far disconnected from such oratory – this was irresponsible, to say the least.
But it is not simply in the UK where the threat from white supremacists is underestimated. According to a recent report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, white supremacists were behind most domestic terrorist attacks in the US this year.
Yet, when confronted with the issue of far-right wing groups during a presidential debate, US President Donald Trump refused to condemn a well-known far-right group and tried, instead, to refocus attention on left-wing groups. Indeed, Mr Trump directed the "Proud Boys" to "stand down and stand by".
In light of this, the International Crisis Group, a non-partisan global research group dedicated to the de-escalation of violence, issued a statement: “As US elections approach, extremist activity, the potential for contestation and President Donald Trump’s refusal to commit to transferring power peacefully raise concerns about possible violence. State and local officials should ensure that voting proceeds fairly, while foreign leaders should urge respect for democratic norms.”
The "extremist activity" noted here should give all of us pause.
It is not clear if the ICG has ever issued a statement like this. But the threat of the far-right remains deeply concerning, not just because the far-right exists, but because so much of its rhetoric is tolerated – even promoted – by portions of the mainstream.
When politicians mirror the discourse of extremists, they may not be directly responsible for the violence that extremists perpetrate, but they are certainly shirking their duties as leaders and fanning flames.
There are many possible, if unintended, consequences of such negligent behaviour, and we should not have to wait for disasters before calling out politicians to end their inflammatory rhetoric.
Dr H A Hellyer is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Cryopreservation: A timeline
- Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
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What is an ETF?
An exchange traded fund is a type of investment fund that can be traded quickly and easily, just like stocks and shares. They come with no upfront costs aside from your brokerage's dealing charges and annual fees, which are far lower than on traditional mutual investment funds. Charges are as low as 0.03 per cent on one of the very cheapest (and most popular), Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, with the maximum around 0.75 per cent.
There is no fund manager deciding which stocks and other assets to invest in, instead they passively track their chosen index, country, region or commodity, regardless of whether it goes up or down.
The first ETF was launched as recently as 1993, but the sector boasted $5.78 billion in assets under management at the end of September as inflows hit record highs, according to the latest figures from ETFGI, a leading independent research and consultancy firm.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five largest providers BlackRock’s iShares, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisers, Deutsche Bank X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
While the best-known track major indices such as MSCI World, the S&P 500 and FTSE 100, you can also invest in specific countries or regions, large, medium or small companies, government bonds, gold, crude oil, cocoa, water, carbon, cattle, corn futures, currency shifts or even a stock market crash.
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How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
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- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
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The five pillars of Islam
Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
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- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
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- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Sinopharm vaccine explained
The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades.
“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.
"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."
This is then injected into the body.
"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.
"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."
The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.
Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.
“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.
