WTF?!?!?! 10 Years on.

I was sat in a classroom, aged 13 and a little bit unimpressed by the actions of my classmates in my year 9 English class, this was the moment that I will always remember, because it was at this time that the world changed. It is a cliché to point out that there are moments in history where you'll always remember where you were, but this was certainly one of them; it was a tragic and horrible moment that would resonate and define the next decade. I am, of course, talking about the September 11th attacks on the World Trade centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D.C.

It is not always clear what the exact effects of major events are, and this was no exception, the direct consequence could arguably be the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but it was also the change of attitudes and the introduction of a new villain in western culture. The “terrorist”, this other became an undeserved stereotype; anyone of middle-eastern descent or links to Islam have become viewed with suspicion. The right wing American media likes to talk about President Barack Obama's middle name (Hussein) as if it has anything to do with anything suggesting that the man had links to terrorism, which he clearly doesn't.

This racism has become a major part of our society, anything linked to Islam is viewed as potentially “extremist”; and ironically many examples of “extremism” that are given are just as much the case in American Christianity. If you're not a Christian in many American states then you are always treated with suspicion, ostracised and occasionally you might well be the target of assassins.

Dr George Tiller murdered in a church in 2009 for running an abortion clinic.

Senator Gabrielle Gifford's was the intended target of an assassination attempt earlier this year...for being a Democrat.

Ironically the labelling of Muslim's as being “terrorists” has created a self-fulfilling prophecy on a large scale with many individuals across the United Kingdom, the United States and other western cultures feeling that they need to join the 'jihad' because they have become accustomed to the media telling them that is what they expect them to be doing. This is mostly the reason behind things like the London bombings. The constant ostracising of the Muslim community in the media has acted as a very strong stimulus and fuel for those most extreme individuals who feel that killing off non - Islamists will get them into paradise.

Recently the government introduced a new set of measures that allow lecturers to report individuals of the Islamic faith to be monitored if they “look down” and that individual will likely be monitored for a while. This isn't fiction or a small scale thing, it's happening right now. The fact is that we have sacrificed too many civil liberties for the sake of a bit of security and this is completely wrong. The reforms that have been put in place over the last ten years have been pretty awful, however we are now starting to see a new phase of laws and reforms to the justice system that will be worse still.

The recent riots in London resulted in a major public backlash against the rioters with a very large number of individuals calling for harsher and harsher punishments for the rioters. The courts visibly enacted very harsh punishments on individuals for very little, the example of a mother who has been jailed for two years because she received a looted t-shirt was particularly prevalent. What terrified me the most was the polling on the number of people who wanted the use of water cannon, CO2 canisters and the army to be brought in, there were even calls for live ammunition to be used. If what the polling has suggested is right then I feel very sad that the British public are so willing to allow such a dramatic removal of civil liberties. David Cameron has even been mentioning that he wants to be able to block social networks during future riots, a tactic being used by the despots in the Middle East and North Africa as they desperately cling to power.

Of course , both of these events are very different with a contrasting set of complex problems associated with them. But what they both have in common is the reaction of the public and by governments, both had reactions that revolved around punishing the group of people responsible and not trying to address the problems that resulted in the act. If you can justifiably take away or lessen the reason to protest then you are going much further down the path to solve the problem in the long term than if you seek to punish those responsible. If we are to learn anything from the last ten years it is that retribution will not solve the problem, we are still fighting a war in Afghanistan because the Taliban and Osama bin Laden were given a greater justification and reason to fight. If greater diplomatic pressure were put on resolving the situation in Israel and Palestine then we may not have seen much of the bloodshed from the last ten years.

If we apply this to the recent events in London and several of Britain's major cities then we should be paying attention to the fact that we have produced ghetto-like communities, have made our benefits system into one that fails to actually give people the support they need to get a job and instead spends most of it's time trying to find ways of removing benefits from those receiving it, we are withdrawing much of the youth service which is so important in ensuring many young individuals have the support they need outside of school hours. We need to look at the reason why so many families in this country are struggling to move up in society and why they are becoming demotivated.

Punishing these families and making it even more difficult for them to get jobs by giving them a criminal record is only going to make it easier for them to justify similarly violent actions in the future and will not act as a deterrent.