I always liked to mention the spring when it arrived. It fills people with such delight as our Seasonally Affected Disorder abates with the incoming summer sun. So the paint-spraying of the Cenotaph seemed very small beer indeed in the greater scheme of things, just an excuse for a few newspaper editors to whip themselves up into a frenzy in the hope that it would look like they were actually headlining something important. 

Well, the spring is truly sprung it seems, as the mercury rises up the glass and the sun bakes the lobster pink bodies in the local park. The sap is rising in tree and teenager, young stags are beginning to lock horns, and young studs are beginning to flex their muscles to show the girls how hard they are. Hot weather, hot blood, hot heads, it’s to be expected. ‘Sumer is icomen in – lhude sing cuccu’.

In our world we expect young people to rebel against those who have power over their lives, and Hippies, Punks and Poll Tax rioters all tested their mettle facing down the riot squads. And some, like hooligans in a football crowd, intoxicated by the thrill of a battle have little thought for those caught in the crossfire.

But cans of spray paint are unlikely to bring down our Nation State, let alone the Global Financial System. Especially when those spraying somehow manage to think of the Cenotaph as a symbol of state tyranny, rather than a memorial to those who proved their manhood facing a tyranny that fired real bullets. Spray painting the Cenotaph showed ignorance and stupidity, but not really traits worthy of too much outrage.

The problem is that in this part of the world, we see the freedom of the individual as having prime importance. We talk of our rights, to Free Speech and Demonstration, and the language of Human Rights. We set out a pattern for the world which encourages man to look to things he doesn’t have and to demand them.

This is not really a muslim perspective on the world. The Qur’an doesn’t speak of the rights of the poor, disenfranchised and powerless. It speaks of human duties, and addresses itself to those who have the power to change things, so we live in gratitude for our blessings and look to share them with those less well off than ourselves.

What changes society is giving not demanding, just as our war dead were prepared to give their lives. The only thing we must demand is justice, and at best that is fallible when dependent on the judgement of our fellow human beings. Fortunately the injustices of this world will be righted in the next, when God, the all-Merciful and all-Compassionate, ‘is the most just of judges’ says the Qur’an.