Colonial legacy cause of UK unrest

Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers Leader Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi blames Britain’s colonial past for the unprecedented social unrest in the country.

“No one thought that Britain, which was once a pioneer in arrogance and colonialism, would one day be engulfed in the flames of its people’s wrath,” IRNA quoted Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi as saying on Friday.

The Iranian cleric said the unrest in Britain was the direct result of the crimes and atrocities it has committed in other countries.

“The colonialists schemed and spent money to create chaos in [other] countries and today the result of their plotting is the events they have been stricken with.”

Seddiqi criticized the British government for its lack of media transparency and for imposing censorship on independent media.

He said Britain’s military ambitions — which have cost British taxpayers a fortune — have led to social poverty and injustice in the country.

The cleric further criticized the West for propagating racial extremism and Islamophobia.

The unrest in Britain began on August 6 in the north London suburb of Tottenham, after a few hundred people gathered outside a police station to protest against the fatal shooting and killing of a black man, Mark Duggan, by the police.

Thereafter, violent protests erupted in major cities like Birmingham, Liverpool, and Bristol, contributing to Britain’s worst riot since the 1930s.

Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi deplored the policies adopted by Western powers, the United States in particular, regarding African countries where famine is pushing Somalia and its neighbors towards a humanitarian crisis.

“The US has looted much of Africa’s resources and today there are no reports of relief efforts by this country for the famine-stricken Somalis,” he stated.

Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader pointed to the humanitarian aid convoys the Islamic Republic has sent to Somalia, encouraging more humanitarian supplies for about 3.7 million Somalis who are on the brink of starvation.