Terror and hypocrisy in London...

THERE was understandable shock and anger at the deadly terror attack in London last week. The killer, a British-born convert to Islam, drove his car into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing five and injuring some 50 more before stabbing a policeman to death in the grounds of Parliament.

Muslim leaders throughout the country have condemned Masood’s killing spree, which appears to be the action of one deranged man. Indeed, we may never know the real motives of Khalid Masood who was shot dead by the police soon after. But this hasn’t stopped the bourgeois media from going into yet another anti-Muslim frenzy to justify more intrusive snooping by the secret police on the British Muslim community.

If the media were simply reflecting public anger at a terrorist outrage this would, perhaps, be understandable. But it isn’t. The synthetic rage of the gutter press and the more sophisticated rants from the media pundits that try to mould public opinion follow a clear ruling class agenda to scapegoat the Muslim minority for all the woes of the ailing capitalist economy and to justify further internal repression against the working class and its allies in Britain.

If the bourgeois press seriously wanted to stop terrorism they could start by urging the British government to normalise relations with the elected government of Syria and cease all support for the rebels who have terrorised parts of Syria for over five years now. They could also campaign for the British government to co-operate with the Damascus authorities in the processing of Syrian refugees to weed out those guilty of acts of terrorism in Syria and return them to their country to face justice. They could but they won’t because the mainstream media in this country exists exclusively to serve the interests of the bourgeoisie.