Representations of London through 'Proposed Terrorist Attacks on London's Shopping Districts' (2015)

On 22^nd February 2015 ‘The Telegraph’ reported that a video had been released by Somalia-based terrorist organization al-Shabaab calling for terrorist attacks on London’s premiere shopping district Oxford Street along with both of London’s Westfield shopping centers.

The Islamist terrorist group was previously responsible for the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Kenya in 2013 where 63 people where killed and over 100 had been injured. In the video, discovered by US homeland security, a masked terrorist states that attacks should be made against shopping centers in America, Canada and London with accompanying coordinates to each of the locations. In the video the masked man urges supporters on the terrorist group local to the shopping locations to carry out the attacks.

This new story gives London a very negative representation to the world. The fact that the video says for supporters local to the supposed attacks to carry them out feeds into the growing anxiety’s around Londoners and visitors to the capital about the possibility of being involved in a terrorist attack. It also gives connotations that there are lost of people in London who have been radicalized by these groups.

The news of these suggested attracts could also add to the growing sense of ‘Islamaphobia’ that may be present among some people in London. With hate crimes on the rise it’s hard not to worry about the fact that other Muslims may feel threatened or isolated when visiting these places as everyone visiting is extra vigilant about the present terrorist threats.

This news story, much the same to other stories on this nature in the press, feed into the theory of ‘Moral panics’ among society. In his work Kenneth Thompson (1998) tells us that “The rapidity of social change and growing social pluralisms creating increasing potential for value conflicts and lifestyle clashes between diverse social groups, which turn into moral enterprise to defend or assert their values against those of other groups. They do this within a public arena which offers many media outlets for amplifying their fears and articulating demands for social control and regulation to defend values.” (1998:11) This quote above relates perfectly to this story and many others like it. Although journalist try to report from a neutral standpoint one sided reports like these have the ability to create a divide in society isolating a certain group of people and creating a ‘them and us’ situation.

Story source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11428309/Al-Shabaab-calls-for-attacks-on-Oxford-Street-and-Westfield-centres-in-new-terror-threat.html

Thompson, K. (1998) Moral Panics. London: Routledge

Alice Davies
1304964

401 Words