The worm in the bud – the disintegration of western society

Last weekend saw unprecedented riots and looting across France, with some of the worst civil disturbance and violence in living memory. Some 2,400 people were arrested, 997 police injured, at least one protester died, and a student reportedly had his hand blown off. The situation was so bad that French authorities have since imposed overnight curfews in Paris and other cities where the violence was worst, including Marseille, Bordeaux, Limoges, Nice and Lyon.

Further protests are reportedly being planned for the coming weekend – while here in the UK, the Greens are urging people to join a similar demonstration in London on Tuesday.

Over the course of the week, people have been asking if there’s a risk we might see similar disturbances to those in France and across Europe here in the UK. Well that question, thanks to the Greens, seems in process of being answered. And the prospects don’t look good.

So what are we to make of all this?

We are told that there were three main causes underlying the French riots. First, discontent among university students and school children, collectively objecting to the poor state of school buildings, inadequate resources, poor teaching, and the introduction of selection procedures for admission to university – which, overall, is perhaps somewhat difficult for us to understand here in the UK, where we have grown used to the poor state of school buildings, and the major problem isn’t so much poor teaching, as stopping children from truanting. Second, the French people en masse are objecting to the skyrocketing cost of living and energy prices – which, of course, is a problem for all of us, thanks to war in the Ukraine and the Middle East. But the third element is apparently somewhat different. Labelled by the French, les casseurs (translated as hooligans, or rioters), this group is made up of activists whose main aims appear to be to smash ‘the system’, fight the police, and bring down the government.

The French authorities have specifically not pointed to immigrants as being behind the disturbances, and President Macron has criticised leaders, most especially the President of the United States, who have suggested immigration is to blame. Nevertheless, there would seem to be a clear coming together of left-wing neo-communist and Islamist groups, equally committed to the violent overthrow of the State.

Palestinian flags were, for instance, reportedly much in evidence, and masked immigrants were seen daubing Palestinian symbols on vandalised buildings, while one of the main Paris synagogues was ransacked, and Jewish shops in Marseilles were torched to the chants of Intifada, an Arabic word meaning ‘Uprising’.

So what started as a legitimate protest movement by ordinary men and women against increases in the cost of living appears to have been hijacked by hard-left and Islamist insurgents, turning an entirely valid demonstration into a broader revolutionary movement, aimed at destabilising society and destroying Western culture.

It is perhaps worth remembering that around six months ago mobs of masked teenagers went on a similar, though more localised, rampage in Clapham, frightening the residents as they ran amok through the streets, burning and looting shops.

They had apparently gathered as result of calls on social media to link-up – boredom was said to be a factor – and Xia Yusuf, shadow Home Secretary for the Reform party, subsequently labelled the rioting a sign that our society was in deep decay.

He was right, and the opportunity for looting would seem to be a major inducement underlying all such disturbance. But this is at heart a spiritual battle, and to have any chance of meeting the threat and restoring our society to health, it is imperative that we recognise what is going on. The anarchic forces currently gathering in our country – whether far-left Communist, Islamic, or anything in between – are united by hatred for our Judeo-Christian heritage and identity. This indeed is what is behind the alarming rise in anti-Semitism. It is not, and never has been simply hatred of Jews and the Jewish state, but, at root, is hatred of Western culture and all it represents. Our would-be revolutionaries will not be satisfied till they have smashed what they see as our weak and failing democracy, and established totalitarian control that will brook no dissent.

Our only hope of meeting and triumphing over this threat, is to recover and stand on our faith and Christian values. As a nation, we must remember our history – who and what we are – and we must turn back to Christ, in repentance. As the apostle Paul said in his letter to the Ephesians, ‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’

This is what is at stake here. A battle between light and dark, goodness and evil … salvation and eternal damnation. For around 1,500 years, while we have attempted, however imperfectly, to keep faith, God has been our strong defender and protector, delivering us time and again from all attack and invasion, both threatened and real. God stands ready to help again – but He will not intervene while we persist in our misguided rebellion and attempts to ‘do it on our own’. It is time for the rebellious teenager to come of age and accept the Father’s discipline. For our survival, it is time for our nation to choose light over darkness, and cast out that which seeks to destroy.