Over the past few months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, one might be tempted to think that everything has slowed down, including the rate of crime. There had been no terrorist attacks in the UK during the coronavirus crisis. But the widely reported stabbing attack in Reading in the UK this week that killed three people is one more reminder that violence still needs to be tackled.
Terrorism, petty crime and even more broadly, conflict, will not simply disappear. We must take advantage of the relative lull in such activities to address how we can reduce the threat of violence to make citizens feel safe on the streets. If we do not take on these crucial issues, we have to be prepared to deal with the consequences.
It is still unclear what exactly happened in Reading. According to the suspect's cousin, the suspect was a Libyan who converted to Christianity; a refugee who had a history of criminal activity and also suffered from mental health issues.
The British media's reporting on this incident has been interesting. While right-wing sections decried the presence of refugees on British soil, less attention was given to the suspect’s reported conversion to Christianity. One can only imagine the coverage had the suspect been a convert to Islam.
Nevertheless, according to news reports, British counter-terrorism police units are involved so all will have to wait to see how the investigation pans out. There remain larger questions though. As the country's police has already declared, the fastest growing threat of terrorist violence is driven by far-right ideologies. Curiously though, while the British media before lockdown expressed great fears about terrorism and Islamists, there was precious little coverage of fears regarding radical white supremacists.
In the US, against the background of the Black Lives Matter movement, there is another disturbing reality: far-right activists have been literally running over protesters.
A Ku Klux Klan leader in Virginia is accused of having driven his truck into a crowd of protesters earlier this month. Such incidents were hardly rare even in the pre-Covid-19 era, but they seem to have increased – perhaps because it is one way to inflict violence without coming into physical contact with possible carriers of the virus. But these instances in Virginia and Reading still amount to terrorism and need to be treated and investigated as such.
While terrorist activities may have reduced during this time because of wider restrictions, this is an opportunity to address these threats and that must not be squandered. Policy makers and analysts have time now to consider how to tackle extremist right-wing terrorism. Regardless of the perpetrators's ideological motivations, the crisis of increasing incidents of terror must be addressed fast.
Every movement develops in six predictable stages. First is the "enduring" stage – and societies have been through that for a long time when it comes to terrorism. Then come the "uprising" and "peak" stages, before it nears "contraction", "evolution" and finally, the "new normal". The pandemic has delivered an excellent opportunity to prolong the evolution phase, with minimal damage because of dampened terrorist activity all over the world.
But what are we heading towards? In the new normal, we must reflect on lessons from history and turn them into policies so that societies become safer. If we manage to do that, we might address factors that allowed crises of terror to emerge in the first place.
Here, however, a new challenge arises: many competing voices will promote different lessons from history to further their own political agendas.
Policy makers and analysts have time now to consider how to tackle extremist right-wing terrorism
Those on the far-right and their cohorts will try to exploit people's natural fears of terrorism, that would then justify clamping down further on citizens' freedoms and fundamental rights.
These politicians on the far-right will play on people’s worries and garner sympathy for populists, just as we have seen in different European countries in recent years with regards to the mainstreaming of far-right bigotry against Muslims and refugees.
As extremists of all shades adapt to the new arena, and if we are serious about avoiding violence in the future, we need to adapt better ourselves. That means taking seriously the need to review our security needs. Covid-19 has given us the opportunity to be more rigorous in redefining security, so that when the necessary restrictions are relieved, we emerge stronger, and more resilient than before.
Dr HA Hellyer is a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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DIVINE%20INTERVENTOIN
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What are the main cyber security threats?
Cyber crime - This includes fraud, impersonation, scams and deepfake technology, tactics that are increasingly targeting infrastructure and exploiting human vulnerabilities.
Cyber terrorism - Social media platforms are used to spread radical ideologies, misinformation and disinformation, often with the aim of disrupting critical infrastructure such as power grids.
Cyber warfare - Shaped by geopolitical tension, hostile actors seek to infiltrate and compromise national infrastructure, using one country’s systems as a springboard to launch attacks on others.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Scoreline
Syria 1-1 Australia
Syria Al Somah 85'
Australia Kruse 40'
The five pillars of Islam
MATCH INFO
Azerbaijan 0
Wales 2 (Moore 10', Wilson 34')
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Summer special
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Astroworld
Travis Scott
Grand Hustle/Epic/Cactus Jack
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Farage on Muslim Brotherhood
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister.
"We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know.
“All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.”
It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins.
Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Tips for taking the metro
- set out well ahead of time
- make sure you have at least Dh15 on you Nol card, as there could be big queues for top-up machines
- enter the right cabin. The train may be too busy to move between carriages once you're on
- don't carry too much luggage and tuck it under a seat to make room for fellow passengers
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
General%20Classification
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Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
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What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
