Muslims a Threat to European Civilization? : How About Euro Yobs?

The concern on the right about the Muslim threat to Europe, overlooks the inconvenient truth that in the UK out-of-control youths - most of them white and ‘Christian’ - are responsible for a lot of the vandalism and violence. The threat to ‘civilization’ isn’t coming from Muslims of Asian origin. It’s coming in part from a resurgence of British yob culture, fueled to some degree by xenophobic nationalism. It would be pushing it to overplay the link between yob culture and the far right. Many of these kids are just acting out for the sheer hell of it - but a percentage are racist and anti-immigrant.

Take a town like Corby for example, located in Northants. It has had 3,000 incidents of criminal damage per 100,000 people. Some of the locals are afraid to step out of their front doors. Other towns such as Mansfield, Hackney and Nottingham are just as bad. Drink fueled yobbos roam the streets causing mayhem and intimidating anyone who seems an easy target.

The ethnic breakdown in Corby is 98.4% white. Asian or Asian British 0.6%. On the religious front 69.4% Christian and 0.2% Muslim (census data: 2001)

Residents of Corby and other towns with a high incidence of yob related crime problems complain of arson attacks, car theft, firebombings, street fights and drunken youths yelling at all hours of the day and night. A resident of Corby named Jane Colman who was interviewed by the London Telegraph secures her front door with two bolts, a chain and a Yale lock. Claims by council members that crime is down as a result of a series of new initiatives aimed at combating the youth problem, are viewed by Ms Colman with skepticism. She has five children and she won’t allow them to leave the house. Ms Colman lives on the Kingswood estate which has been particularly hard hit with gang violence. On one occasion police were called to deal with youths who were running across the roofs, from one end of the estate to the other.

Incidents go beyond eyeballing potential victims and roughing up old ladies. People are being killed for little more than complaining about behavior going on in the neighborhood. Garry Newlove, 47, was killed when he confronted a group of youths outside his home in Warrington. Evren Avril, 23, was beaten to death by a gang. His crime? Complaining when the youths in question tossed candy wrappers into his sister’s car. Lee Harris, 29, of Gateshead was beaten so badly he slipped into a month-long coma. His offense? Refusing to buy alcohol for underage youths.

Ironically, a lot of the Muslim youth violence that right wingers like to pretend is Islamist inspired, often comes down to Muslim youths imitating the yob culture they find around them in UK cities. Who can blame them? If I was a young Muslim encountering gangs of local yobs I would get together with my buddies and fight back. Isn’t that human nature? Ask any of these Muslim kids if their gang activity has anything to do with Osama bin Laden’s schemes and they will laugh at you.

Not so long ago BBC interviewed a group of young Muslims in a neighborhood of London. One young dude was wearing a ball cap and looked like a NY Yankees fan. When the topic of Islamist activity came up he laughed and said " 'ere we're not like them Taliban okay" (or words to that effect) in a rich cockney accent. He clearly thought it was a hoot that anyone would think he and his mates were into Islamic fundamentalism.

In a recent survey of Muslim youth cited in the Guardian 31% said they felt "completely" British, 27% said they felt "a lot" British. A great many British youths of Muslim background do indeed see themselves as Brits and their gang activity is more often than not a response to neighborhood threats, or at least the perception of threat.

Manzoor Moghal, of the Federation of Muslim Organizations, takes the view that British born Muslim youths have assimilated the worst of British culture. A BBC news report quotes him as saying - "They are following the norms of the youth culture of this country. Then because they come from a different racial group things do tend to acquire a racial complexion."

Great care needs to be taken when attempting to brand Muslim youth violence as Islamist inspired. A lot of these young guys are "Muslim" in name only. Many of them couldn't quote from the Qur'an if their life depended on it. To try and classify them as Islamist sympathizers is absurd. To even get to first base as an Islamist you have to at least know the rudiments of Islamic teachings.

The recent rioting in France was immediately pegged by some right wing pundits as a form of European jihad. This is way off base also. The riots were triggered by factors relating to discrimination, unemployment and a sense of hopelessness.

The UK government’s response to the recent spike in youth violence has been to hide their head in the sand. Tony Blair’s ‘respect agenda’ has in large part been a failure. The top-down patronizing approach of Blair never got to the root of these challenges. The powers required to address youth problems shouldn’t rest in the main with the Home Office, but should increasingly move in the direction of community-based solutions. For example in Westminster the council has hired 90 ‘city guardians’ who patrol in distinctive jackets. This has had positive results with a much higher percentage of residents claiming they feel more confident about using the streets. Local municipalities know best what types of challenges they face with youth violence and they are the people who should be coming up with the appropriate measures. What the citizens of the UK don't need though is a totalitarian type response, with bans and curfews. Bad though youth violence may be, what is worse is an authoritarian crackdown that impinges on rights and freedoms across the board. It has to be a carefully measured response.

While most of the violence attributed to Muslim youths is in fact connected with neighborhood tensions, there is no disputing the existence of a Jihadist underground in Europe. Given the attacks that occurred in London and Madrid, only a fool would be complacent in the face of potential dangers. But when it comes to a threat to European civilization, look no further than Mugeln in Germany, where eight Indians were viciously attacked by a mob screaming "foreigners out". This attack took place while townspeople looked on. Right wing motivated crime in Germany has shown a steady rise. It has gone from 15,361 incidents in 2005 to 17,597 incidents in 2006.

Yob culture in the UK has racist aspects to it. Despite claims by the BNP that it wants to help clean up yob culture, there is good reason to believe that far right nationalist rabble rousing has helped to drive the yob mentality - even lent it justification.

The way things are going, the real enemy of European 'civilization' may well turn out to be home-bred rather than imported.