I remember last summer and autumn talking to friends about the impact of the Raising the Colours movement, some of the statements made in debate by Charlie Kirk and the Unite the Kingdom marches. One of the main things that came across was that not only did those words and actions create an environment of increased fear for African and Afro-Caribbean friends but also several helpfully pointed out how what such things did was create an environment of culture where there was space for more to happen, space for greater acts of hatred and ultimately violence. Some friends had already suffered from intimidation and attack.
This was one of the reasons why I believed it was important at that time for Christian leaders to be speaking up in response to such events and in response to Christian Nationalism, an example of how that kind of ideology can sadly find space in our churches too.
I was reminded again of such warnings this past week as we saw further violence targeted against the Jewish community here in Britian. Such violence has included knife attacks on Jews, attacks on synagogues and arson against Jewish property.
Back in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th atrocity, the response of many political activists was not to condemn the rape, murder and kidnapping. Instead, we heard Hamas referred to as freedom fighters and then we saw Saturdays taken over by regular marches in our cities where antisemitic slogans were chanted. At the time, I argued that you could not describe such marches as peaceful when they allowed space for ugly, racist chants inciting violence and when the very impact of mass marches through Jewish neighbourhoods was to create an environment of intimidation and fear.
The chants and actions of marchers were already being given space by words, actions and non-actions in other places. We saw frequent examples of antisemitism online and a reluctance by social media platforms to deal with it. Sadly, prominent Christians have written articles and books that have carried antisemitic tropes. When I and a few other friends raised concerns about one book, we were dismissed as left-wing. Then there has been the way that main stream political parties have allowed antisemitism to get a foothold leading to the intimidation of Jewish party members and politicians.
All of those things were doing the same for antisemitic violence as the flag raising, immigration baiting and unite the kingdom marching was doing for other types of racism. What we have seen is that both the actions and words of some and the silence of others have created space for increasing violence. How do we deal with the violence and prevent further and escalating atrocities? Well we need to start by closing down the space in which such violence is cultivated.
Faithroots 